That's A Very Good Reason Right There
by Raawr.x
Summary: Just why is Joe shrinking away from these good looking women Miles is suggesting? My idea of the reason why.   Raawr.x
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: First Whitechapel fic! ^.^ I have watched the show since the start but until this year with the focus on DI Chandler getting a relationship, and constantly refusing, I had no ideas. So here is my take on why he didn't get himself involved with pretty SOCCO Lizzie Pepper.**

*THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!*

Charlie's eyes fluttered open.

*THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.*

Less urgent than the first, but with more meaning.

*THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!*

Charlie's eyes widened. How was he still asleep?  
>"Joe!"<br>He only stirred when a punch landed in his ribs.  
>"Ow…" he grumbled making a feeble attempt to hit his assailant back.<p>

*THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!*

Joe's eyes shot open.  
>"Who is that?" He pushed himself up in the bed<br>"Well I don't know do I? That's what I've been trying to ask you!" Charlie hissed  
>"What do you want me to do about it?"<br>"Go see who it is! No one knows I'm here, this is your house therefore whoever is pounding at the door wants you!" Charlie looked at the clock "You never told me that you got visitors at one in the morning."

*THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!*

"Alright, already!" Joe grumbled clambering out of bed.  
>He was ready to walk out of the bedroom when Charlie shouted after him.<br>"You can open the door to me like that, but not anyone else!"  
>He looked down at himself and realised what he was wearing, his boxers, and rather more importantly what he wasn't. He walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a white t-shirt that was about four sizes too big for him that he kept to sleep in if the nights got too hot for a blanket but too cold not to have something on, and his tracksuit bottoms.<br>"Meow! Sexy" Charlie nodded approvingly before sinking back under the covers with a yawn.  
>Joe blushed faintly before hurrying out of the room and down the stairs to the door.<p>

*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*

"Oh for god's sake!" he growled as he flung the door open to reveal his team minus Megan standing in front of him all fully dressed, ready to work. He sighed. "Come in." He stood to one side and the three men filed in watching as he pointed to a door. "Through there." He sighed shoulders slumping looking defeated as he shut the door and followed them into his living room.  
>"Sorry it's so early." Miles apologised looking extremely tired himself, but glad to be out of the house.<br>"Yeah, Kent here…" Finley thumbed at the youngest detective "Had an idea about the case…"  
>"So he texted me and I told him to come over, he did told me his idea and we went to go and collect this muppet" Miles affectionately punched Finley in the shoulder "Then decided to come and get you."<br>"What about Megan and Buchan?" Joe asked stifling a yawn and rubbing his eyes.  
>"Well, Meg's got kids so we thought it best to leave her for the moment and Kent you called Buchan?"<br>All three older detectives looked at Kent for the explanation he was about to supply them with.  
>"He said he'd meet us here." Kent shrugged<br>"Have you told Buchan your idea?"  
>"No..."<br>"It can wait until he gets here then." Joe told them somewhat slurring his words together through lack of sleep.

*Knock. Knock. Knock.*

That was Buchan. Joe had opened the door to reveal their 'advisor' cradling a heavy looking stack of files that he wouldn't let Joe take from him, not even half to help. Joe ran his hands over his face while letting out a long and pained sounding sigh; he wasn't going back to bed.

Thirty minutes later they had heard Kent's idea decided that they would start working on it when they were at work and Buchan was ranting at them about some murders that traced back to the middle ages and trying to explain, with no success, why they were relevant.

*Creak*

Joe sighed. Charlie had always been nosey, why should tonight be any different?  
>Unfortunately this noise had attracted the attention of the four other men as well.<br>"What was that?" Kent asked in a hushed whisper.  
>Finley tapped him on the back of the head, "It's no use whispering now you idiot! If it is someone they've probably already heard us!"<br>The noises from the stairs ceased. Sat on the stairs, Charlie was very good at that, just sitting and listening, never needing to see. The footsteps resumed on the floor padding toward the living room, everyone was visibly holding their breath. Joe was trying not to laugh, they all did look terrified. Where's a camera when you need one? The door crept open revealing a pair of blue-green eyes staring up at them from just over three feet off the floor. At seeing this Joe's whole manner relaxed, a toddler crept shyly into the room eyes brimming with tears.  
>"Daddy I gott'ed a cut"<p>

**A/N: What do you think? R&R ^.^  
>Raawr.x <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Ta-Dah! We're back!**

_"Daddy I gott'ed a cut"_

Joe's face visibly softened and he scooped the toddler up into his arms.

"Where?"

The little girl offered her one of her small hands to him. She was right she did have a cut, a big one, across her palm from her little finger to her thumb. Joe felt his stomach beginning to churn; cuts and bruises were normally Charlie's job, but he could do this all he needed to do was clean it then get one of the big plasters, stick it on and put her back to bed. His mind then registered the word that had rendered them all silent. Daddy.

Joe put the little girl down on the sofa where he had been sitting, setting off a chain reaction of closing files and putting them on the coffee table.

"Do you mind watching her while I get something for that?"

"No, not at all." Miles was trying hard to hide the smirk on his face while the others looked simply shocked.

Joe walked out of the door and left the little girl with them. She watched him walk away; the tears had dried as soon as Joe had picked her up. She palmed her unruly dark curls out of her face with her good hand, and sniffled holding her cut hand gently in her lap.

"What have you done then?" Miles asked softly

"Cut…" She mumbled presenting her hand to him shyly.

"Ouch, how did you do that?" He asked, again softly, pulling a tissue out of the nearby box and wiping away the blood that was currently dripping down her small arm.

"Fell…" She answered pointing up "Getting out of bed"

Miles picked up a new clean tissue folded it into four and placed on the small hand offered to him, pressing down gently.

"Now, you hold that there and it should stop it bleeding until your daddy gets back,"

"Thank you," She smiled up at him

- - - Meanwhile - - -

Joe shuddered once the door had shut behind him, willing his feet to carry him toward the kitchen they didn't. He found himself walking up the stairs and back to his and Charlie's room.

"Charlie?" He whispered sitting down on the bed "Charlie!"

"Hmm?" Two big dark eyes looked up at him from beneath the covers.

"It's Lillie,"

"What? What's happened?" Charlie sat bolt upright in the bed

"She's cut her hand." He drew a line across his palm with his finger marking out the spot of the cut on the little girls' hand.

"Oh, god…" Charlie sighed and jumped out of bed throwing on a vest and some tartan pyjama shorts.

Kent's ears pricked up when he heard two sets of footsteps making their way toward the room, the little girl had heard this too as she stopped talking to Miles and her head snapped up. Joe was the first in the room carrying a box of wipes and some plasters, a tall-ish woman with dark eyes and long dark curly hair wearing a white vest and some tartan shorts followed smiling sympathetically.

"Hey there baby," She crouched in front of the little girl, resulting in her showing more of her slender figure than Joe was comfortable with the a certain one of the other men in the room seeing.

She stole the box of anti-septic wipes out of his hands and gently wiped it over the cut, the little girl hissed in pain.

"Shh…" She soothed sticking the plaster Joe had just handed her over the cut.

While this was happening Kent, Finley and Buchan were watching the young woman and Miles had begun to quiz Joe.

"Who's she?" Miles asked pointing discretely to the little girl.

"My daughter Lillie, she's three and a half."

"And who's that?" Miles pointed to the young woman who noticed this and stood up offering her hand.

"Charlotte Chandler," Charlie introduced herself shaking hands with Miles.

"Ray Miles"

"My wife," Joe smiled, finally able to say those words again after five years.

"How is it that we've never met before Charlotte?"

"Charlie." She corrected him, he nodded "I've been living in the states for the past five years, I had a good job opportunity and I took it, Joe didn't want to leave so I went on my own…" Charlie shrugged

Miles looked confused, "Five years? How did she come about then?"

"Just because I moved away doesn't mean that we split up! He came and visited quite often and … as married couples do…"

"Yeah, I get it …" Miles then turned his attention to the gawping Finley "Wipe that look off your face! You are married! And you," He turned to Buchan "Shut that file; there are pictures in there that a girl of three should hopefully never see, not in her whole life."

Both men obeyed like loyal little lap dogs, Finley sitting upright and closing his mouth and Buchan closing the file and replacing it on top of the others on the coffee table. Lillie giggled happily laughing at the men doing as they were told, seeming to have forgotten about her little injury.

**A/N: Well? How do you like Lillie and Charlie Chandler? R&R! ^.^  
>Raawr.x<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Just watched the finale! Poor Joe! Ah well he might not have Morgan anymore but he does have Lillie and Charlie ^.^  
>- - - - - - - -<strong>

Charlie had put Lillie back to bed but had then stayed downstairs in the room with 'the boys'. She didn't mind listening to talk about murder, death and violence, she just snuggled up to Joe and tested how close she could get to him before she caught the attention of one of the other men, or Joe started to wonder what she was doing.

"Ed." Joe rubbed his free hand over his face; the other was currently occupied by Charlie, her arm wrapped around him getting as close as was humanly possible "These murders have no significance what-so-ever."

"They do." The short, portly man protested thumbing through the file, "Here."

He handed Joe four sheets of paper, two of which were signed by a 'Dr. Llewellyn' making them medical examiner reports and the other two were photocopies of two old sheets of paper dating from the 1400's talking vaguely about poison, arsenic… maybe… Joe laughed soundlessly and kissed her head.

"What?" She grumbled glaring up at him.

"Nothing," He leant his head on top of hers and handed the sheets of paper back to Buchan still fully oblivious to the assumed relevance.

"How long have you two been together?" Buchan asked placing the papers neatly back into the file taking great care not to crumple them.

"Married? Or just together?" Charlie stared up at him her big black eyes shining delightedly

"Both." Finley supplied for Buchan knowing that the 'ripperologist' would have only chosen one or the other but he, and he presumed as did Miles and Kent, wanted to know both so they knew a fair bit more about their DI before telling Megan about it tomorrow.

"Married, 14 years, together …" Joe tried to finish but Charlie distracted him placing a kiss at the base of his jaw, giggling when it rendered him shocked looking and lost for words.

"Together 18 years"

Charlie snuggled further into Joe's side, rested her head on his chest, closed her eyes and visibly relaxed; she turned her attention to the steady rhythm of his heart rather than listening to the details about the violence used to inflict a slow painful death on innocent people.

- - - - - - -

Two hours later at four in the morning the off the books investigation group disbanded, Kent gave Finley and Buchan both lifts home and Miles who had come in his own car was invited to stay for what was left of the night, so that he could get some sleep.

"No, I'd better get home" He forced a laugh "You know what Judy's like! She'll be worrying her little head if I don't come home until after work!" Another forced laugh, "But I suppose you know what that's like now…"

He eyed Charlie still snoozing peacefully on the sofa, as she had been for the past hour and a half, a pillow currently occupying the space where Joe had been sitting. He walked out of the room and Joe followed wondering what the DS was going to say next.

"She's very attached to you…" Miles smiled thoughtfully "Loves you, a lot. Pretty too." He stopped and turned a question showing in his eyes "Where'd you meet a nice, good looking girl like that who can put up with you?"

"School," Joe smiled fondly at the memory, either ignoring or not noticing the joking insult "We met when she was ten and I was twelve. Her older brother used to bully me and she, uh… Well… She stuck up for me…" He breathed a laugh "We got talking, became friends and things just escalated from there…"

"What was the job opportunity that she went to the states for?"

"Charlie is a performer. Dancer, singer, actress, musician… She used to work with an agency who found her small job after small job and finally the big job a stage show company in America…" Joe shrugged "But she's back now!" His tone was upbeat and so was the smile that crossed his face "I have her and Lillie at this side of the Atlantic with me, rather than at the opposite side… thousands of miles away…"

"It's good to know that now you've got someone else, other than me, to look out for you rather than you looking out for everyone else and you've got a reason to take better care of yourself on a case." This said he walked out of the door and waved "See you in the office!" He called

"Yeah, the office" Joe chuckled and briefly waved back, before making his way back to the living room to join Charlie.

He stopped at the door and turned to the boiler cupboard, opening the door he grabbed a few of the warm freshly heated blankets, then returned to the room wrapping one around Charlie a second around himself and the third he placed over both of them after he had moved carefully back into his place making sure not to wake her up.

"Miles is right, I don't have any excuse to put myself in any form of danger anymore…" He whispered to her before kissing her head "I love you both far too much…"

**A/N: Well… How are you liking it so far? R&R ^.^  
>Raawr.x<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hmm…. Well… I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this at the moment… Oh well! Hey-ho! I'll just write and see where it lands us eh? ^.^**

**...**

After getting what he judged to be about two hours sleep Joe moved stiffly, stretching and inwardly cursing himself for not making sure that they had gone back to bed.

His eyes snapped open. Where was Charlie? Jumping up from the sofa he felt his unprepared legs give way beneath him, he crashed to the floor and with an almighty bang he took most of the contents of the coffee table with him. Wow. He rubbed his eyes, continuing to study his surroundings as Charlie appeared in the doorway frying pan in hand and a look of pure bewilderment on her face which quickly flashed to concern when she spotted him on the floor.

"Gosh! Joe, are you okay?" She reached down as though to help him with her free hand.

He nodded his head in answer to her question then looked pointedly at the hand offered to him and shook his head.

"What time is it?"

Charlie faltered, "Go get a shower and dressed then I'll tell you what time it is." She ordered, he knew better than to not do as she instructed and trudged upstairs to their bedroom.

He picked his clothes out of the wardrobe, noting that Charlie had taken care to turn off the digital alarm clock that occupied the bedside table, this meant that he was up far later than the OCD in him would allow. He headed to the bathroom.

/.../

Charlie grimaced, Joe was not going to forgive her for letting him sleep, however much she was going to protest that he looked to cute to wake up. Shuddering she returned to the task at hand making sure that Lillie ate, rather than decorated the floor with, the pancakes with cream and strawberries she had asked for, such weirdly sophisticated tastes for a little one… Daddy's influence that… Speaking of daddy…

Two arms wrapped around her "Good morning beautiful" He kissed her cheek "Now, what time is it?"  
>Charlie untangled herself from his arms and grabbed the cup of coffee and bacon sandwich she had set on the table for him.<p>

"Drink," She handed him the coffee "And eat." The bacon sandwich

He did as told seating himself at the other side of Lillie he took a bite "Are you going to tell me the time or not?"

She visibly hesitated "Before you say anything. I called Commander Anderson told him you'd be late in due to lack of sleep." She giggled "He was shocked to hear from me!"

"Charlie." He stared intently at her from across the table "Time."

"Half eleven!" She blurted out before giving herself chance to think,

Joe jumped up from his seat looking startled; his body clock was way off since Charlie came back.  
>She sensed his immediate discomfort and moved soundlessly over to him, winding her small arms around him, she felt so delicate and protected when she was close to him. His hand unconsciously found its way to her face; he placed a soft kiss on her lips, tenderly looking into her big dark eyes he regretted being compelled to leave.<p>

"I have to go…" He whispered, guilt clouding his eyes "Sorry…" He let go of Charlie and turned to where Lillie had finished her pancakes "Good bye baby girl!" He picked her up gave her a hug and a kiss, set her down and kissed Charlie again before rushing out of the door.

/.../

Joe practically fell through the doors into the incident room and stumbled down the few steps that were immediately two steps from the doors, quickly finding that his back was still a little sore from his and Charlie's night on the sofa.

Finley raised his eyebrows and gave Miles a knowing grin, which promptly fell from his face when Joe noticed.

"No." He said bluntly

"Really sir? You look a little flustered?" Finley had to stop himself from laughing as Joe stretched and walked toward his office.

"No." Joe repeated "No matter what you think the answer is no."

Megan looked confusedly around at the men, before eventually turning to Miles "Care to explain?"

"He's married!" Finley told her a look of sheer amusement crossing his face

Kent huffed and turned to his computer pretending to take no notice of the conversation, wanting no part in it.

"Really? Since when?" Megan asked when Joe walked back to join them

Joe smiled fishing his phone out of his pocket and sitting on the edge of Megan's desk "Fourteen years married, eighteen together and friends for twenty"

"That's lovely" Megan smiled, Joe handed her his phone "Wow… She's beautiful…" Joe moved the phone on to the next photo "And a little girl too! Aw, she's adorable, a real cutie!"

Joe smiled proudly, taking back his phone "She's… well they've both been living in the states because of Charlie's job but she's packed it in, the America side of it, so that we can be a family"

"I meant to ask last night, what _is_ her job?" Finley asked

"She's a performer, dancer, singer, and actress. That kind of thing." Joe shrugged. "She's always been really creative,"

"She's a nice lady as well, from what I saw she loves him a lot." Miles commented smiling, remembering how Joe had acted completely different and loving around Charlie.

The door to the incident room opened and all attention moved toward it.

/.../

**A/N: ^.^ If you add up the ages right then you'll see that Charlie and Joe got together when she was 12 and he was 14, and married when she was 16 and he was 18, I'm telling you this just in case you haven't worked it out because it's going to be coming into the story soon. Anyways! R&R! **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm in a very sunny happy mood at the moment so um… Enjoy!**

**...**

_The door to the incident room opened and all attention moved toward it._

"Oh! Uh… Sorry, you left this" The young woman stood in the doorway and held up a file in one hand and was using her other arm to support the toddler on her hip who was staring at them all sleepily.

Joe immediately moved from where he was perched on Megan's desk and took the file from her, kissing her on the cheek before retreating to place the file neatly on a table.

"Well, I'll be going now then?" She turned

"Stay," Miles called after her "We've really got nothing going on, can't do anything until we get the forensics report back anyway!"

Joe wrapped his arms around her "Stay." He whispered "Please?"

She wriggled free of his grasp and turned to face him, a smile lighting up her features "Of course!"

Joe took the toddler, who in turn looked up at him, smiled and proceeded to cling to him like a little spider monkey.

The young woman was making a point of introducing herself to Megan, the only person in the room she didn't know or hadn't met last night.

"Charlotte Chandler" She offered her hand as she had done to Miles the previous night

"Megan Riley"

The two women shook hands, knowing that they would get along just fine. Charlie wasn't particularly sure about how she would get along with Finley, he seemed like a bit of a player, or Kent, he'd been quiet last night and hadn't spoken much. Much to Joe's delight though she did get along with Miles and could tolerate Buchan, well just about as much as Miles could, maybe a little more.

Lillie remained spider monkey like clinging to Joe until she caught sight of faces she recognised, her grip on Joe's jacket loosened and she smiled, but there remained a firm grip on the brown rabbit teddy sporting a big yellow bow that she held in her left hand.

Charlie's initial 5 minute visit to drop off the file turned to an hour and a half of talking and laughing with her husband and his co-workers. She was pretty content with the progress she had made, finding herself with new friends in them all especially Megan who had spent the past fifteen minutes entertaining Lillie, then she had the idea.

"Why don't you all come over to ours tonight?" Charlie suggested smiling at Joe over her shoulder

"That'd be lov…" Megan started

"They can't." Commander Anderson interjected standing in the doorway "There's a charity event tonight and I expect to see you there, ALL of you" He looked pointedly at Finley "Families too, if the short notice is inconvenient." He added before Megan and Miles had chance to put forward their excuses.

All through his little speech and explanation Lillie stared up at him her big blue-green eyes filled with curiosity, she vaguely recognised this man although she wasn't sure where from, so she just watched him hugging her rabbit tighter to her.

_thump- __**thump - thump**__ - THUMP - THUMP__** - THUMP - THUMP**__ - THUMP - THUMP - __**thump**__ - thump…_

At this sound Megan's eyes fell on Lillie then flashed over to Charlie.

"Innocent," She smiled "Nothing permanent… They don't think anyway,"

"They won't be able to tell until she's six anyway will they?" Megan asked

"No…" Charlie picked Lillie up and sat her on her knee, "I'm guessing you have children?"

"Yeah, two girls and three boys all under ten,"

"Gosh… I can only imagine what that's like; I always said that I wanted at least two children but…" She shrugged half-heartedly, not wanting to re-count the story.

"They make a terrible mess but I love them to pieces,"

"Kids eh? What would we do without 'em?" Miles pushed himself up onto the table closest to the ladies.

"Not half as much cleaning!" Megan grinned,

"Less worrying!" Charlie added matching Megan's grin

Joe, Finley and Kent were still listening to Commander Anderson.

"It's a formal charity event; I will not accept any excuses for your not being there, any of you. Those of you who have children have partners; if one of them is sick get your partner to stay at home with them. This team has shown me up before by not turning up to important charity events, I will not tolerate it happening again…."

He continued to talk but Joe zoned out thinking about ways for them to get out of going to this 'important charity event'

_Can't use child illness as an excuse, can't just not turn up and say we forgot he's giving us the speech, we couldn't possibly forget, we'll have to go, there's no way around it, unless…_

"We'll be there, sir."

"Make sure you are or there will be problems for all of you," He turned on his heel and feeling his mission accomplished walked out of the room.

"What are you playing at!" Miles exploded

"Don't worry! I have an idea," Joe smiled in a way as though to put them all at ease

**...**

**A/N: Well what do you think? Anybody care to guess what Joe's big idea is? R&R people it's nice for me as the author to read your reviews! ^.^**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello again!**

**...**

"Joe, I'm not too sure about all of this…"

Charlie pulled the flowery yellow dress over Lillie's head, straightened it out, put her on some little yellow shoes that fastened with daisy buttons before turning her attention to the toddlers unruly, like her own, dark brown curls combing through them with a big tooth comb before putting a flower clip amongst them and made her sit on the bed.

"We're not going to be there long, just show up, and make sure he sees us, stay for an hour make sure other people see us there and then everyone comes back here, simple right?" He hugged her from behind and kissed her head then turned his attention to the yellow tie that Charlie was now pushing at him.

They were all wearing at least one thing yellow, Charlie's dress was a shade of red somewhere between rose red and scarlet and fell just below her knees, it had a yellow gold waist band and around the shoulder strap that lay on her right shoulder, and a yellow gold necklace around her neck. It was one that Joe had given her when they had been 'going out' for a year and she hadn't really taken it off since, it only left her neck when she was dancing so it didn't get caught on anything and break, a simple heart locket that inside read _'I will always love you, no matter what'_ He had had it made special for her, she couldn't even remember what she had given him.

"Can Babbit come?" Lillie asked quietly watching them pleadingly

"Of course he can sweetheart," Joe picked her up and kissed her head then whispered "You go get him while mama and I finish up here," He set her down and she ran to the door "Just don't fall!" He called after her when she ran out the door.

Charlie smiled laughing quietly, "I'm taking some plasters" She announced with a small giggle fishing some of the afore mentioned articles out of a drawer and putting them in her bag "How many kids did you say Miles has?"

"Four." Joe replied "Why?"

Charlie took the handful of plasters out of her bag and replaced them with a box, an action which answered his question perfectly.

"One of them is still a baby if that changes anything at all?" Joe offered

"No, that's still nine kids." She watched his expression flash confusion "Lillie, plus Miles's older three and Megan's five,"

"Right… Of course you're right" He smiled "I keep forgetting…"

"What?" She moved closer to him

"Mansell's married but doesn't have children… That was McCormack…" He whispered the last part "I keep forgetting!" He growled angry with himself, it had been two years since DC McCormack's suicide during the 'Kray' case.

"Calm it Kermit…" Charlie soothed wrapping her arms around him "You can't remember everything, but that will never give you an excuse to forget our anniversary" she kissed his cheek and sprang away from him winking playfully.

"MAMA!" Lillie shouted hurriedly "I can't find Babbit!" Her tone was beginning to sound distressed.

Charlie jumped up knowing full well that the last thing they needed now was tears but Joe was already out the door.

_He's a sucker for a damsel in distress that man…_

**_..._**

Joe walked coolly into the three year olds bedroom, to find her frantically searching over and over every possible place she could have put 'Babbit' down, tears brimming in her eyes. She stopped and turned at the sound of his footsteps.

"Daddy…" She whimpered sadly, "I can find him!" She looked up at him tears beginning to spill down her face.

"Shh… Shh…" He soothed picking her up from the floor "Hush, don't cry… We'll find him, I promise. We won't leave until we have him, okay?" He used one arm to support her and the other hand to gently wipe away the tears that were already cascading over her cheeks.

"O- okay" She stammered trying her best to stop crying as quickly as possible, "We'll find him." She repeated her father's promise.

"Right, now, when did you have him last?"

"When me and mama were picking a dress," She patted his arm as a signal she wanted to be put down "I was sitting on my bed like this…" She sat down on the bed "And he was over there." She pointed to the top right corner of her bed, next to her pillow, where the rabbit always was when he wasn't in use.

"Okay then…" Joe moved over to the bed "Mind out sweetheart"

Lillie jumped up and moved out of the way as she watched her father pull the bed away from the wall and climb onto it crawling up to the right corner and look down.

"Ah!" Joe smiled to himself "Got him!"

His smiled turned to a grin when Lillie made a gleeful happy noise; he grabbed the right arm of the over-sized rabbit and climbed back off the bed, sitting on the edge as Lillie ran over and hugged him, before taking the rabbit from him, now wearing a smile to replace the tears, and hugging it to her chest.

"Come on then, mama will be wondering what we've been up to!"

Joe stood up and offered his daughter his hand which she thankfully accepted and skipped alongside him as he walked out of the room.

**...**

**A/N: What are we thinking about a little 'Daddy, daughter time'? R&R people ^.^**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Time again! ^.^ I don't think all of Miles's or Megan's children have ever been named so… I'm gonna make it up, feel free to tell me if they have been named though cos I remember Miles's eldest was named at one point in the Kray season but I'll be damned if I can remember what the name was… If you _do_ know please review or PM me and tell me! **_**ANY**_**hoo enjoy! Ooo, ooo, ooo! One more thing! This is all set before Mansell's divorce because I started writing it before that!**

**...**

"I hate things like this…" Miles grumbled pushing his tie back into place causing the baby girl occupying his arms to squeal unhappily, glare up at him and, once again, pull the offending article down "No. Sophie…" He batted the little hand away "I said no… Judy!" He called "Take her, please?"

"What?" Judy turned from her conversation with Megan to see her husband battling with their baby daughter "Oh! Come here sweetheart" She took her into her arms "There now!" She turned back to Megan "What's she like then, Joe's wife?"

"She's lovely! She's pretty, smart and she loves him to absolute pieces" Megan smiled knowing that Judy and Charlie would get along just fine, not entirely sure about how Eva and Charlie would get along though...

Speaking of Eva, Finley and his wife walked into the room, spotted them all and moved quickly over. Eva was all glammed up as usual, lots of make-up; blusher, eyeliner, foundation, bright red lipstick, mascara, probably fake tan and false eye lashes, her bleach blonde hair all curled and mainly pinned up but it didn't take a genius to work out that she was wearing extensions, for gosh sakes Sophie could have worked that out! Her LBD was a little too far north of her knees, more of a TBD (tiny black dress); thank goodness she had the sense to wear tights and to top it all off skyscraper black heels. Megan couldn't work out whether or not Eva was older than Charlie though, she probably was because Joe was younger than Finley and there were only two years between Charlie and Joe, the outfit Eva was wearing however made her out to be younger than Charlie but through all that slap who could tell?

Eva approached them as Finley walked over to where all the men were laughing together and having a drink.

"Hi," Eva smiled broadly at them.

Sophie squealed and burbled curiously when her eyes landed on Eva.

"Hey there pretty girl," Eva cooed gently "She's gorgeous,"

Judy smiled proudly "Worth all the pain,"

"So, Megan you've met her… What's Joe's wife like?" Eva asked interestedly

"She's pretty, smart, lovely person… But I suppose you can judge for yourself" Megan smiled indicating toward the door.

All attention from their rather large group turned towards the door. Joe and Charlie walked in, Joe carrying Lillie and Finley's jaw almost hit the floor but a friendly slap around the head from Miles reminded him that he was married and his wife was with them.

Lillie was hugging the big rabbit teddy that she had had with her earlier in the day, tightly to her chest, his big floppy ears hiding most of her little face but from the wideness of her eyes it was easy to see her innocent child confusion as she surveyed her surroundings searching for someone her own age. She would find none, the kids had made a point of going outside into the courtyard like area to play and get away from the adults.

Lillie reached out to Charlie when she saw that Charlie was walking toward Megan and Judy.

"Okay then, big girl" Charlie grazed her nose over that of her young daughter as she took her from Joe "Hello again Megan" Charlie smiled obviously able to handle the social occasion easily.

"Hi Charlie," Megan turned her attention to the little girl "Hello Lillie, don't you look pretty,"

"Hi Megan!" Lillie chirped happily,

"Charlie, this is Judy Ray's wife and Eva, Finley's wife" Megan gestured to each of the women in turn

"It's nice to meet you both" Charlie smiled kindly putting them all immediately at ease "Who's this little cutie then?" Charlie looked at Sophie with the 'goo goo eyes' only a mother has.

"This is Sophie," Judy smiled "Mine and Ray's youngest"

"She's beautiful,"

"Mummy!" A little boy with big yellow-green eyes and floppy light brown hair ran over and hugged Megan's legs "Mummy!"

"Hey baby, what's the matter?" Megan scooped him up and kissed his head

"Sienna said she was gonna get me!"

He clung to her like a little spider monkey, his little hands fisted in the straps of her dress. Lillie watched the little boy shyly, he wasn't younger than her but not much older, the blonde girl who strode in behind him was a different story, she was a good couple of years older than both of them.

A blonde girl strode in not long after the little boy stopping every now and again to look for him, once she spotted them her mission was clear and she ran over, her knee length pink dress rustling with every movement she made.

"I did not!"

Megan opened her mouth to make reply to her daughter, when they were distracted by a rather loud argument coming from the other side of the room.

The men were distracted as well, the conversation stopped everywhere in the room apart from the drunken argument that was causing problems and as usual it was a drunken police officer, with a little too much 'Dutch courage', letting a superior know exactly what they thought of them, they certainly wouldn't remember it in the morning but would feel a weight lifted off his shoulders, along with an extra couple on his head, and wonder why.

Eva took a long look at the man who was doing the shouting, she didn't recognise him. Charlie however…

…

**A/N: Well… I've nothing else really to say at this point apart from R&R! ^.^**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hehe! ^.^ Ba-aaa-ccckkkk! **

…

Charlie looked at the man ranting at the senior officer.

"Oh, no…" She used her free hand to cover her eyes.

Megan sensed Charlie's immediate discomfort and put the little boy down and took Lillie from Charlie with a soft smile.

"Why don't you go and play outside with the others?" Megan put her down next to the little boy "This is Declan, my little boy. He's only a little older than you, so you two stick together yeah?"

"Okay" Lillie answered chirpily, hugging the rabbit teddy close to her but smiling over its head.

"Off you go then…" Megan kissed Declan's head; she turned to Sienna "Watch them okay?"

"Yes mummy…" Sienna skipped after her brother and Lillie

…

"And…You." The man slurred pointing at Commander Anderson "Are a slef-ritchous blastold"

Commander Anderson just laughed lightly in return, knowing full well that the man was going to regret it in the morning.

"Now, I think you've had enough"

He smiled easily, attempting to take the man's drink off of him, before a fist landed square in his jaw.

"I know. When I 'av 'ad" Hiccup and a sway "e'guff"

At this point Joe's amusement ceased and he put his drink down, he made his way over to the drunken officer throwing punches. Miles grabbed his arm to hold him back.

"Let go. I know what I'm doing…"

Joe shook Miles's hand off, Miles frowned as he let go but followed closely behind the young DI.

"Sam." Joe latched onto the arm of the drunken officer "That's enough."

'Sam' turned his full attention to Joe and watched him with a murderous glare. He continued to slur insults, Joe just nodded.

"Oh, am I?" Joe feigned a sarcastic interest "Really? Yes, yes, you've made that _very_ clear…"

"Away's the fave-rit"

Joe now understood what he was getting himself in for and made a quick move to block the punch that flew his way toward his stomach, succeeding he smiled.

"Right then." Another slur,

Joe just shook his head, not realising that another punch was heading this way and he was smacked in the face.

"Joe!" Charlie squeaked

The punch had landed Joe on the floor but he quickly picked himself up and threw a swift punch back, which was expertly (to say he was drunk) blocked by 'Sam' who countered with a successful punch to Joe's stomach, by this point the remainder of the team were on their feet making their way over to where the semi fight was taking place but Miles had already thrown the defending punch knocking 'Sam' away. Miles was now on the floor next to Joe, who was struggling to breathe.

It wasn't long before Charlie and Judy were beside their husband's, Judy with her hand resting on Ray's back and Charlie on her knees in front of Joe her hands resting at the top of his arms, she was looking deep into his eyes.

"Just. A. Little." He took a deep breath "Winded." His eyes scanned the room, "Where's. Lillie?"

"Playing," She smiled "Don't worry, let me worry about you!"

He smiled back and managed a small laugh, "Gladly" He breathed, before coughing.

'Sam' pushed himself up from the floor, walked over to Joe and tried to pick up on the fight, Miles tried to get him to leave but Charlie rocked back onto her feet and stood.

"Sam. Go home. You do not need to pick a fight here. Take your problems somewhere else." Charlie warned stepping up to him.

"You…" He slurred moving threateningly closer to Charlie "W'at you… Doing 'ere? Bitch." He swayed on his feet.

"No closer." Charlie held up a hand

"Why?" He continued to move

"I'm warning you Sam. No closer."

Charlie moved her right leg back, taking up a defensive stance. At one brief look Joe knew exactly what she was going to do, the others watched her with an air of nerves surrounding them.

'Sam' moved as close to her as Charlie's mind was allowing her to tolerate on as high alert as it was, she opened her mouth to issue another warning but he moved to take another threatening step closer, she stole a look at Joe. No other way around it. She shifted her weight onto her left leg and with one quick move she delivered a front snap kick to his stomach, heaving him two metres further away from her.

Joe pushed himself up from the floor with heavy, laboured breaths; he wrapped his arms around Charlie and rested his chin on her head.

"You, good?" He asked between breaths.

She turned in his arms to face him, wrapped her arms around him. She felt safe there, she always had.

Miles and Judy were back up from the floor and Judy was taking Sophie back from Kent, Commander Anderson, now complete with ice pack pressed to his jaw, made his way over.

"Your brother." He addressed Joe "What do you suggest I do about it?"

"Nothing, he's pissed, he's not going to remember this tomorrow…"

Charlie had tucked herself under his right arm, watching his every word intently. This had given them the perfect excuse to leave.

"Sir. No disrespect but, we turned up. People have obviously seen us here…" Joe hugged Charlie tighter to him "Do you mind if we leave? All of us" He looked around at his team and their families, Megan and Eva were returning from outside with the kids.

"No," He forced a sympathetic smile "Not at all, go…"

"Thank you sir." Joe scooped Lillie up into his arms and kissed her head "Let's go,"

They all exchanged looks and followed them out of the door.

Once in the car park high fives were exchanged especially between Megan, Judy and Charlie. They obviously admired her ability to defend herself.

"Brother." Miles stated rather than asked

"Yes, Sam, my older brother… He's a dickhead but he's my family…" Joe sighed before wincing somewhat in pain "I didn't want to hurt him, that's why I didn't really fight back…"

Charlie placed Lillie in her car seat before rushing over to see if Joe was okay.

"I'm fine, really" He smiled and wrapped his arms around Charlie, "Miles, you know my address,"

Miles smiled knowingly, "Meet you there."

He gestured to the others to get in their cars, they did as told. All of the cars filed out of the car park following one another.

Joe turned his attention back to the woman in his arms; Charlie wound her arms around his neck, her hands landed on the base of his skull pulling his head down gently until their lips met. A sweet kiss filled with the emotion of their years together.

…

**A/N: For some reason I did keep imagining the Morgan/Joe kiss while I was writing the last part… R&R ^.^**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Got the season 3 DVD set last week so I have been provided with a lot of inspiration! I'm also presuming that Miles's older children are boys by the way the others reacted when he said the baby was a girl & Thanks to the DVD's I've found out that Megan only has two children so… *insertFacePalmHere* I'll be just continuing with the two I have named Declan and Sienna… Also still coming up with names for characters that haven't been named in the show… Enjoy!**

…

When Joe parked the car in the driveway he was a little shocked to see them all not sat in their cars but waiting by the front door.

"Too warm." Miles answered the silent question.

Joe nodded as he unlocked the door; Lillie resting in his other arm swinging her legs restlessly clung to him like an impatient limpet with her arm wrapped securely around the rabbit teddy. Charlie, Judy, Megan and Eva were sat on the two benches chatting like they had all known each other for years.

"So Charlie what do you do for a job? I asked Ray but, he just … You know what men are like!" Judy laughed

"I'm a performer, dancing, acting singing that sort of stuff…" Charlie shrugged

"Explains why you've been in America for so long then!" Megan smiled,

Something in Eva's mind seemed to click and suddenly she was very interested in everything Charlie had to say.

"Have you met any celebrities?" The only question Eva offered,

"Yeah quite a few, I've done music videos" Charlie smiled at Megan and Judy knowingly "None I've kept in touch with… Lillie did become friends with Max and Emme though…"

"Jennifer Lopez's twins!" Eva stared wide eyed

"Yeah, she's lovely…"

Megan and Judy exchanged looks before bursting out laughing; Eva was completely immersed with everything Charlie had to say now that she had found out about her working with celebrities.

Meanwhile the men and the kids had made their way inside. Lillie, once down on the ground, hoisted herself onto the stool that was in front of the small, conveniently placed writing desk with a little sigh. Her dress made rustling sounds as the fabric crumpled under her. She unbuttoned her shoes and slipped them off before placing them neatly on the rack and following the rest of the adults and children into the room.

…

After a while everybody was in the living room, apart from Charlie who had gone to get changed, engrossed in the list of films that they had found on _Netflix:_  
>Spirited Away; Lillie had convinced Joe to watch that with her last week, she loved it and he had to admit he'd liked it too.<br>Gregory's Girl, No comment.  
>High School Musical; Even the kids had groaned at that one, Lillie absolutely hated it and Sienna wasn't too keen either.<br>Sons of the Desert; No one felt like Laurel and Hardy after the episode with Sam at the 'Charity Event'  
>The Lady Killers; Buchan sounded enthusiastic but all of the parents in the room glared at him and Megan smacked him in the head.<br>Watership Down; None of the men wanted to be forced to admit that it made them cry.  
>Ice Age 3; No one had a comment so that was on a potentials list along with it seemed Spirited Away and Gregory's Girl.<br>Jungle Book; Again a potential…  
>Hoodwinked; Both Megan and Judy let out a laugh when they saw this and it immediately found it's way onto the potentials list.<br>Finding Nemo; Everyone in the room shared a look and a nod.

Charlie rushed back into the room, now wearing some plain black leggings, red wool bed-socks and a big comfy t-shirt, most of her make-up had been wiped off and her hair was tied up, and placed herself tactfully on the floor at Joe's feet where Lillie happily climbed into her lap.

_..._

"_I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come on Squishy, Come on little Squishy..." Pause and a buzz "Ow! Bad Squishy, bad, bad Squishy!"_

Sophie had fallen asleep about 10 minutes after the movie had started and was now snoozing peacefully along with her daddy, Declan and Sienna were snuggled up with Megan in the bigger of the two comfy arm chairs still engrossed in the film, Judy had the youngest of her and Ray's boys at her side (Joe couldn't remember how old he was, 9? Maybe 10?) Lillie had long since transferred from Charlie's lap to share the second arm chair with Joe, daddy and daughter all cuddled up together. Charlie couldn't resist snapping a picture for her phone wall-paper. While Buchan and Kent seemed to be the only one's not enjoying the film, no surprises there.

Three quarters of an hour later the film faded to black and the credits rolled up the screen, Megan turned the lights back on, Joe blinked and lightly rubbed his eyes to help them adjust to the sudden light change. It was well past 10 o'clock, Declan had fallen asleep fifteen minutes ago and Lillie was just beginning to nod off. Finley and Eva had left half an hour ago, claiming to be tired; Megan had caught Charlie's gaze and mouthed 'Gagging for it.' Nodding at Finley, Charlie had to agree with a giggle.

Judy woke Miles up and suggested that they head off.

"I 'aven't had such a nice sleep in ages" This earnt him a playful smack on the back of the head "Ow... G'night!"

"Night!"

Not long after everyone was gone and Joe had put Lillie to bed Charlie was swept off her feet. She squeaked in surprise at the uncommon gesture.

"Joe! What are you…"

He cut her off by planting a brief but passionate kiss on her lips and carrying her up the stairs.

…

**A/N: Heehee! I have nothing else to say but… Reviews people! ^.^**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: We're back! I can't garuntee that the updates will be weekly again just yet as I have 10 exams coming up, and a half controlled assess. peice of cvoursework to be handed in soon, ANY-way... This chapter is… I'll admit it a little bit depressed… It started as a joke and grew more serious, I uh… Apologise :/ … Have fun**

…

"Mine." Finley joked stealing Kent's biscuit,

"Hey!" He snatched it back.

Megan sighed, rolled her eyes and found herself thanking God when the door to the incident room opened and Joe strode in Miles following closely behind.

"We shouldn't have watched _Finding Nemo _last night…" Megan shook her head following Miles to his desk and sitting in the nearby chair "It's having a negative effect..."

"How can a children's film have a negative effect on two fully grown adults" Miles turned to watch

"Yeah, _two_ fully grown adults" She turned to watch them as well "Last time I checked _Mansell_ was not a fully grown adult."

The door to the incident room crept open, expecting to see Buchan Megan turned to it wearing a smile of greeting for the Ripperologist which promptly faded when she saw a bleary eyed, hung-over looking police detective leaning in the door way. Miles stood to confront him, but got an apologetic seeming smile from the man.

"Either I punched you, or you punched me last night, right?" he asked in a hoarse whisper

"I punched you, stopped you from beating your brother to death."

"I would thank you for that, if I liked my little brother."

They all spotted it, those red, tired looking blue eyes matched those of a certain fresh faced, fully sober DI.

Joe stood by the door to his office and watched the very different, silent reactions to his brother. Samuel Anthony Chandler. The brother that was throwing his life away and flushing his once successful police career down the toilet; there was no doubt to anyone that he had been one of the officers 'on the take' during the 'Kray' case, but Joe had protected his big brother, as much as he didn't like him, the man had already lost his wife and two sons the last thing he needed was to lose what little access he had to his children after being put in prison for accepting bribes and losing his job.

"For God's sake… Sam just state your business then get lost. I've had just about as much as I can take of you for the next year or so… Hurry up or go now." Joe stared at his brother blankly, not even the tiniest shred of compassion in his eyes.

Sam grumbled something illegible before looking over at his younger brother, a look of pure sincerity on his face. "I never thought I would ever say this to you Joe but…" he took what sounded like a deep breath before forcing out between clenched teeth, "Thank you."

Joe still looked unimpressed "That it?" Sam gave him an incredulous look in return "Good. Now, you can obviously find the door since you are blocking it." Joe turned and headed into his office and, with a shooing kind of wave, said simply "Leave."

He sat behind his desk like nothing had happened and proceeded to do what he normally did every morning when he first got there: Watch, off, on the desk; phone, tiger balm, out of his pockets and on the desk, all three perfectly in line with one-another and his stapler.

…

Sam wasn't being bossed around by his 'baby' brother but he wasn't up for going against the Sergeant again, or the other two. Right now he had to concentrate on getting his career and his life back on track, two things that, despite his OCD, the 'baby' of the family had beaten him in; despite her five years in America with their only child Joe still had Charlie and their perfect little Lillie, the little 'blue eyed girl' that was so cute she couldn't do anything wrong.

…

After watching Sam stand in the doorway for a while not moving, Joe rose from his seat behind his desk and move calmly out of his office, and stand silently by the door.

Sam's grey-blue eyes rose to meet his brothers blue-green one's and with an instant, no movement, no sound message, he turned and left them, walking in the general direction of Commander Anderson's office, practicing his apologetic look and running the 'my life is completely messed up right now' speech over in his head.

"I sense some bad blood between the two of you…" Buchan chanced this statement once the air seemed to be free of tension.

Joe ran the fingers of his left hand unconsciously over the palm of his right, "You have _no_ idea Ed, you really don't…" His eyes hit the floor "I'm not at all proud of saying this, but, if he hadn't knocked me down last night I probably would have killed him and not regretted it for a second."

"Sir…" Megan breathed, while stretching a comforting arm in his direction.

Right now he didn't at all care about being the dignified human being that he had conditioned himself to be, he wanted to go home, be with his girls and wallow a little in self-pity. The nearest thing to that was all he could do for the moment; he turned, walked into his office, shut the door firmly behind him, sat back down in his chair, and rested his elbows on the desk top with his head in his hands. Running the start of the day over in his mind.

…

**A/N: I'm going to attempt at less serious chapters for 11, 12 and (possibly) 13 so if you have any ideas, please review and let me know! So R&R ^.^**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: YAY! Heehee! I'm in a rather good mood while I'm writing this so this should be a fun and light-hearted chapter. I apologise in advance if it isn't… Enjoy!**

…

Joe had, surprising himself and his colleagues, left at the same time as everybody else. Truth be told he just wanted to get home early…Earlier than usual and surprise the girls, despite whatever mess they might be making, Charlie was very good at making sure everything was all spick-and-span and back in its place (as much as she could manage) by the time he normally got back from work.

As he pulled the car into the drive one thing kept running through his head. _Please don't let them have been baking._ He knew that his brain would probably explode if they had been baking, he would know instantly just by bits of flour Charlie might've missed when wiping the worktops and little grains of sugar getting lodged in the grain of the small oak table. This had all happened before and he knew he wouldn't be able to bear it again.

It was fairly late though, Lillie would be in bed, and he and Charlie would have the night mainly to themselves providing that the little munchkin didn't wake up through the night. She'd been fine for the past couple of weeks but the first week after they had come 'home' from America she'd been unable to sleep whilst she knew that they were still awake, she'd had nightmares, but she had calmed down a lot more once she had gotten used to her surroundings.

He pushed the door open with some reluctance; he knew that she was going to have done something especially after that phone call earlier:

"_Joe…"_

"_What do you want?"_

"_Can we get a pet?"_

"_No."_

"_Just a puppy?"_

"_No."_

_"Maybe a kitten?"_

"_No."_

"_For Lillie?"_

"_No."_

_"Goldfish?"_

"_No."_

Charlie was stood in the doorway to the small study type room looking more agitated to have found him than she would if she had found a burglar.

"Joe!" She squeaked, hand resting lightly on her chest "I wasn't expecting you back this early!"

She stepped away from the doorway shutting the door behind her, looking sheepish and reserved.

Joe cocked an eyebrow "What have you done?"

"What?" Charlie looked like a rabbit in the headlights, "Oh, nothing, just me and Lillie have made a bit of a mess in there that's all… I was hoping to clear up before you got home, but never mind… I don't get you to myself very often, I'll clear up tomorrow" She smiled as she walked over to where he stood.

He sighed. She had done something of that he was sure, but he was also sure that he didn't want to argue. That was when he heard it.

A soft crying, whimpering, sound was coming from behind the door, Charlie's face fell and it was clear from her expression that she knew she had been caught out.

"What have you done?"

"Well… Um…" She stumbled over her words "I know that you said no when I asked… but he was just so cute!"

Sighing in a way that sounded defeated Charlie walked back over to the doorway that she had been standing in and, once his shoes were off, Joe followed her if a bit reluctantly at first. She opened the door slowly and the whimpering turned to yelping that got a little louder.

There stood watching them tail wagging and watching them with bright curious eyes was a puppy. He was small, gangly with big floppy ears and a blonde-ish colour, so yes, Joe immediately found himself falling in love with the dog.

"He reminded me of you?" Charlie offered, Joe just looked at her "What?" She giggled "He does!"

She picked the puppy up from the floor and held him in one hand while pushing a few stray strands of hair behind her ears the rest was tied up messily.

"Look at him!" She held the puppy up to his face "He's so cute!"

The puppy looked at him, yelped and licked his nose. Joe couldn't help but laugh and stroke the little guy's ears.

"Okay, okay… What are you going to call him then?" Joe asked as Charlie put the puppy back in his bed instructing him to keep quiet.

"I was going to let Lillie decide… I haven't told her yet," She smiled "Judy took her to the park today with Sophie and Declan while I went to buy this little guy; he's a saluki if you're interested?"

"Okay, I'll admit it, he's cute…"

"So…" Charlie said shutting the door behind then "We can keep him?"

"Sure, Lillie's gonna love him and so long as she's happy I'm happy"

"Yay!" Charlie let out a squeal of glee, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Joe couldn't help but laugh; he adored making his girls happy and hated it when they were sad, it made him depressed.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/

He was awake before Charlie again but this time he had stayed in bed and just watched her sleep. She looked relatively peaceful, laying on her side had exposed her other side where the vest top she was wearing had rode up putting the blue pattern tattoo that rested over her hip and a little up her side, he had to resist running his fingers over it.

She stirred and turned over onto her back, her eyes opening halfway and staring up at him. She turned her head to look at the clock, half past five.

"Morning…" she whispered hoarsely

"Good morning," he smiled, his eyes fell down to the tattoo again.

"Oh," She pulled her top down so that the tattoo was covered up, "So, how are we going to do this then?"

"What?" For the first time in a while he was genuinely confused then remembered, the puppy, "Your choice."

"Okay then…"

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

Lillie sat up in her bed. What in the world was that noise? A little running noise padding excitedly across the floor. The door opened, Lillie gasped and sunk back down into her bed pulling the covers up over her head.

An excited yelp before a slight weight found its way onto the bed, Lillie pulled the covers away from her face and looked down to the bottom of the bed. Letting out a little squeal of surprise and delight she scrambled out of the covers and crawled toward the intruder.

"Hi…" she whispered stroking the puppy's head "Where'd you come from?"

Outside the door watching Joe and Charlie smiled at each other, before walking quietly into the three year olds bedroom.

"Surprise!" Charlie whispered sitting beside Lillie on the bed

"He's a cute puppy…" Lillie commented not removing her eyes from the puppy as though he would disappear when she did "What's his name?"

"Well, me and mamma were talking about that last night" Using all of his self-control he forced himself to sit down on the floor "And we decided that you should choose his name,"

"Me? Really? I get to pick?" Lillie grinned delightedly; she thought and appeared to consider several options before finally settling "Rolo." She insisted with a nod.

Charlie and Joe shared a smile, for a few seconds before they both nodded in agreement.

"Rolo it is."

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

**A/N: Well what do we think to the new addition to the Chandler family? R&R ^.^**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Well here we go again! -.- Don't know why I'm so enthusiastic… I'll be the first to admit that this chapter starts off a little dark and depressed… And a bit in it's a little on a touchy subject but only mentioned, don't worry I will not go into detail on that point…**

**/.../…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/**

Charlie didn't know, in fact she didn't want to, how Joe had spent this particular day over the past two and a half years. She personally wanted Lillie out of the house and him to herself tonight, maybe she could call Megan, Lillie was good friends with Declan and Sienna loved having another little girl around… But then she would have to explain, no thanks. She couldn't call Joe's mother either… Old hag. That's how he's probably spent the last two years; _"The past is the past! Get over it already!" _her conscience mimicked in an old crone voice. She had adored her mother-in-law until two years ago, then she had realised how much of a heartless hag she really was.

…

After sitting at his desk for over an hour and contemplating whether to ask Miles if he and Judy wouldn't mind watching Lillie tonight he had decided that he did not want to run the risk of being forced to explain. He would never get away with _"We just want a night to ourselves"_ he'd get caught out for lying and made to explain.

…

Charlie's eyes welled with tears; thankful that Lillie could not see her like this she wiped them furiously away. The toddler was in the living room watching _Lady and the Tramp _with, ironically, Rolo while Charlie made dinner. However Charlie was no domestic goddess, in fact most of her attempts at cooking ended in a complete disaster, now she found herself laughing a little through the tears. She didn't hear the door open, least of all her little girl call to their visitor and she certainly didn't hear her daughter being charged with watching a certain Sophie Miles while her mummy went to help Charlie. Shit. Judy and Sophie, she had forgotten that she had invited them over as a thank you for yesterday. She tried to stand and give herself time to recover from the crumpled mess she currently resembled.

The door opened.

"Charlie!" Judy knelt down next to the crying younger woman "What's wrong?"

Charlie shook her head, all the while her eyes forced shut.

…

Heading to the crime scene Joe was just in time to watch Miles turning Megan away, refusing to let her in.

"Ray!" Megan protested "I've seen some things in my time as a police officer!"

"No. Not like this you haven't."

Joe walked up to them; Miles's attention was now focussed on him.

"S'a kid." He stated simply, paling as he did so.

Joe felt his insides churning, nope; he couldn't do this today, definitely not up for this today, not a kid. Both he and Megan looked toward Miles for the answer to the unasked question which was lingering in the air around the three parents.

"Little boy."

That was it. Megan headed straight back to the street most likely to her car, no more protesting to be let in. Miles paled a little more, he looked ill. A female police officer, who Joe knew had two young sons herself, rushed out of the house and down to the end of the driveway. Finley and Kent were the next out, well half out; they stood in the doorway looking as though the life had been sucked out of them.

Kent was the first to utter a word, he pointed into the house. "No."

…

Charlie and Judy were now sat at the table in the kitchen; Sophie and Lillie were probably still watching the movie. So far Judy had been less than successful in getting the reason behind the tears out of Charlie, despite the fact that she had soon calmed her down.

"What's the matter Charlie?" Judy stared sympathetically at the younger woman

"I'm not really up for discussing it, Judy, please just leave it…"

"It's better not to suffer in silence you know"

"No… It's not that I don't want to tell you, believe me I do, I want to explain, but it's just too…" Charlie considered many adjectives "Painful, for me…"

…

"Paedophiles play den, and looks like the kid was the play thing…"

"No." Megan covered her ears and tore the photo down from the board "_That_ is not staying up there."

"Meg…" Finley warned

"Meg, that's a crime scene photo…" Kent reminded her quietly

"I don't care. If the kid wasn't dead along with his mother and the paedophile we wouldn't be investigating. I am a mother," She turned to where Joe and Miles were walking into the incident room "And they are both fathers. I think I'm speaking for the three of us when I say that picture is not needed."

"What picture?"

Megan held up the crime scene photograph of the little boy. Without speaking Joe took it from her placed it face down in a file and closed it, an action which ended the argument, before he moved back into his office and closed the door behind him. Not today.

…

"Come on." Charlie jumped up from her seat "We can't leave those two alone with Rolo for too long you know!" She feigned enthusiasm

"Charlie…" Judy insisted "Sit down for a minute; tell me what's wrong…"

Charlie sighed and sat back down in her chair, it wasn't like the food was going to burn. Hell if Charlie could burn sandwiches then she really couldn't cook.

"Is it Joe?" Judy took a guess, if she wasn't going to be told it was a good way to try and get it out of her, it worked with the boys. "Have you two fallen out?"

Charlie shook her head, "No! Of course not! We've never fallen out…"

"So it is something to do with Joe?"

"No," Charlie shook her head again "Not entirely…"

"Not entirely?" Judy mumbled to herself "Has he hit you?" Long shot but, why not?

"No! You've met him, fact you've known him for the past three years! Do you honestly think he is capable of that?"

"No I don't, but not all men who hit their wives or partners look capable of it…"

"He has _**never**_ laid a finger on me in that way…"

Okay then… Not something in the marriage, certainly not something wrong with Lillie, Judy had seen the little girl herself, nothing wrong there…

"Someone died?" Judy meant this as a sort of blasé comment, but Charlie's eyes welled with tears once again.

"You are not going to stop until you get it out of me are you?"

Judy nodded with insistence, "Even though I have only known you for just over a week Charlie I count you as my friend, the same way that I think of Joe… And when I personally see my friends upset I want to know what is wrong so that I can help."

"Fine…" Charlie stood up "Come on then, I'll show you…"

…

Joe was really not up for this case, he was thinking about feigning an illness and going home when Miles walked in.

"Are you alright, you look a bit sick..."

"It's just… Unhh…" He pointed and waved in the general direction of the incident room, obviously indicating the case.

Miles sat in one of the chairs opposite Joe's desk. Joe had his head in his hands.

"It's not just that, I can tell… I'm very good at noticing when people are lying to me, with four children you get reasonably good at it."

Joe stood up from his desk; Miles mirrored this action by standing up himself and following Joe out of his office.

Joe grabbed his coat and shrugged it on, "Come with me then, I'll show you…"

…

**A/N: Well… R&R! **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Back! There's a lot of chopping and changing in this chapter, so to help you out I'll put Judy and Charlie in **_**italics **_**and leave Joe and Miles as normal. Have fun. Enjoy. Haha and don't forget to review!**

…

"_Come on then, I'll show you…"_

_Judy followed Charlie to the study where Rolo was currently residing during the night; Charlie angrily wiped the tears away from her face and picked a picture up from one of the shelves. She handed it to Judy._

_The picture was that of a little boy, he could have been no more than three years old, with dark blonde hair like Joe and deep brown eyes like Charlie; he was smiling cheekily at the camera._

"_Ethan." She told her simply "My little boy…" Charlie's eyes welled with tears once more._

"_What happened?"_

…

Joe stopped the car just outside a church; he hopped quickly out of the car and Miles following rushing to keep up with the younger DI's pace.

"What are we doing here?"

"You want to know what's wrong."

"Yes, I do…" Miles was finally managing to walk in pace with Joe.

"Then follow me,"

They walked in silence from the church yard to the graveyard. Past numerous graves, recent ones at that, some still with the word flower wreaths around. 'Mum' 85. 'Grandma' 'Nana' 74. 'Uncle' 'Dad' 88. 'Son' 'Daddy' 34, army grave. Joe finally stopped at one, no more than three years old, 'Ethan George Chandler'3. He ran his hand over the top.

"Ethan." Joe told him, his eyes closing calmly "My son…"

"What happened?"

…

"_He was in the 'States with me, it was only six months after Lillie was born that he first started feeling ill, he constantly had a temperature and was being sick, so I took him to the doctors thinking that it was nothing just a little tummy bug as they tend to get when they're younger… And that was also what the doctors thought at first," _

…

"Turned out it was far more serious than just a simple run of the mill stomach bug, he was really ill. Charlie had to take him to the doctors about six times before they took any notice of the fact that he wasn't getting any better, just worse, and the symptoms more serious." Joe sat down on a nearby bench "They had been telling her, it was only flu and to just keep him hydrated, give him some medicine and he'd get better soon…"

…

"_It was the first actually experienced doctor that we got in to see that noticed right away that it wasn't just something simple, like flu or a tummy bug" Charlie sat down in one of the arm chairs and Judy in the other opposite "He just thought it was the treatable version first, so he sent us on to a hospital so he could get treated and he'd get better…"_

…

"It turned out to be a lot worse than they thought; he never actually got better, and from the moment he was admitted to hospital he just started to get more and more ill. The symptoms increased and his condition declined with every new treatment they tried with him… One day they told Charlie that they had run some more tests overnight and what had gone from a hopeful light of recovery now looked grim…"

…

"_Viral Meningitis is the less serious of the two and is 99.9% of the time treatable and curable… That's what they told me he had at first, but now after these new tests they had found that it in fact was the worse of the two that he had, Bacterial Meningitis if caught and not diagnosed in time, although it is rare, can be life threatening and prove fatal…"_

…

"And it was fatal, meningitis and pure medical negligence killed him, the new on the street doctors hadn't really seen a case of it let alone diagnosed one before because it was so rare…" Joe ran a hand through his hair, "If they had just sent her to see the more experienced doctor before-hand they would have caught it in time and he probably wouldn't have died…"

Miles had been rendered silent by the whole story "How old was he?"

"He was only three… Lillie was only a few months old at the time so she doesn't really understand what happened but she does remember him,"

…

"_She talks about her big brother all of the time, I'm actually quite surprised she hasn't mentioned him to you already." Charlie wiped away the tears that threatened in her eyes._

_Judy was silent, it wasn't often that things would render her completely speechless but this was one of them. She and Ray had been so lucky with the boys and Sophie all four of them were happy and healthy._

"_Joe, he never even let on…"_

"_He's always been good at that, hiding his emotions…" Charlie smiled sadly_

"_Come on, let's go see what mess the girls have made!"_

…

"We'd best be getting back," Miles warned "Or you're going to end up going through the whole rigmarole of telling them, never mind me…"

"Yeah, good point…"

They walked back to the car in silence but it was a comfortable one. Once they were sat in the car Joe turned to him.

"You're not going to say anything right?"

"Not unless you'd prefer that I did"

"No…Thank you…"

…

**A/N: Wow. That was difficult, but addictive, to write… Also I would like to add that I am currently in the middle of a war with technology, my laptop, iPod and phone all against me so there may be some delays in the postings of the chapters but I will do my very best to get them up here! **

**Reviews much appreciated! ^.^**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Well this is my attempt at light-hearted-ness, after the last two chapters… Enjoy!**

…

"I, uh… I told Judy today…"

Joe looked at his wife completely confused.

"About Ethan…" Charlie pulled his arm tighter around her "She caught me at a weak point…"

"Don't worry…" He kissed her head "I told Miles…" He chuckled.

Burlesque was not his favourite movie, but it was Charlie's and with him, whatever either of his girls wanted they got, well it was either that or they just did it anyway! Rolo had certainly proved that.

…

Three-quarters into the movie the popcorn was starting to run out so Charlie went to fill the dish back up, what Joe hadn't been expecting was to have a handful of the stuff thrown at his head and when he turned around to be confronted by Charlie, a giggling, child-ish mess.

"What?" was all she managed through the giggles as she made her way back to the sofa, "I'll clear it up tomorrow!" She told him, waving her hand dismissively as she walked around the arm of the sofa.

The last thing she had expected was retaliation. He leaned over and quick as a flash grabbed a handful of popcorn before throwing half of it at, well in the general direction of, her.

"Ah!" She squealed almost dropping the overly large bowl on the floor.

"Bet you didn't think I'd do that!"

Charlie didn't say anything; she just set the popcorn down on the coffee table and launched herself at him.

"Hey!" Joe protested with all of the seriousness he could muster while she grinned down at him lying helpless where she pinned him "No fair!"

"All's fair in love and war!" She declared kissing him firmly on the lips "Oof!"

Joe had smacked her lightly on the back of the legs with a cushion; she'd lost her balance and fallen right on top of him.

They were so playful together it was unreal. If anyone from work ever saw him like this he would not be able to live it down, they would never take him seriously again, well sometimes they already didn't any way, but he did not want to encourage that.

"I love you," Charlie announced completely out of the blue.

"I know that," He chuckled

"No, Joe… Serious for a moment, it's just…" Words seemed to fail her for a moment "Today has made me think about how much you, Lillie and, of course, Ethan mean to me…"

"Well I love you too," the door opened and he rolled his eyes "Hell… I even love Rolo in a way,"

The puppy yelped delightedly, an action at which Charlie and Joe both found themselves laughing. Charlie climbed off of Joe and picked Rolo up from the floor.

"How on earth did you get out, you little monster?"

Rolo just yelped excitedly in reply and tried to lunge toward the door.

"Okay, okay little guy…" Charlie hugged him "Back to bed with you!" She put him down on the floor and led him out of the room.

Joe pushed himself up so that he was sitting again. Yes, he was one lucky man, he had an amazing home, car, a gorgeous little girl, he'd spent three perfect years with his cheeky little man and of course he had a wonderful, talented, funny, incredibly beautiful wife who loved him just as much as he loved her. Yep. His life, he wouldn't change it for the world.

…

Charlie led Rolo into the study.

"D'ya know I cannot work out how in the world you get out of here mister, but this," She patted the, what at the moment seemed oversized, dog bed "Is your bed, you sleep in here, for now…"

She allowed herself to be drawn over to the bookcase for the second time today, she picked up the picture. No use in hiding it anymore…

…

When Charlie re-entered the room she was carrying the picture. The only picture they had of Ethan and Lillie together. She placed it on the table next to the rather recent one of Lillie and smiled before nodding in approval.

"Do you want to watch the rest of the film?" Joe asked as he stretched,

"No," Charlie laughed a little "I already know how it ends!" She yawned "I think I just want to go to bed, today has been a hard day and to be perfectly honest I'm glad that it's over!"

"You are not alone!" Joe stood up from the sofa and turned the TV off before wrapping his arm around Charlie's waist.

…

"Joe…" She whispered as she climbed into bed

"Hmm…"

"I miss him…" She cast her eyes up at the ceiling

"I miss him too, but there is nothing we can do Charlie…" He wrapped his arms around her as some form of protective barrier. "Just try and forget for now, forget the pain and get some sleep" He kissed her head.

She yawned, and closed her eyes "Nothing we can do…" She repeated.

She wriggled and turned on her side putting the blue pattern tattoo that rested over her hip and a little up her side on display; he had to resist running his fingers over it. Ethan.

…

**A/N: Review! All reviews much appreciated! ^.^**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Well, I'm currently not sure at all where I'm going with this… Aw hell! I'll just do what I've been doing since the end of chapter 3, continue to write and see where it lands us as I have missed several opportunities to end because to be fair I do love writing this story!**

**In addition, chances are that anything you recognise from outside this story I do not own, you'll see why I'm adding this to this chapter later on…**

**Enjoy!**

**/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/ **

Charlie turned to face Joe and kiss him good morning, she opened her eyes to find an empty space beside her with a note on the pillow, detailing how he had been called into work at half past four but thought that she deserved to sleep so couldn't bring himself to wake her.

Fine. Charlie checked the time, noting that it was in fact quarter to five, far too early for her to get Lillie up; she must have literally just missed him. Despite popular belief Joe was always the lazier of the two, he found it rather easy to fall back asleep if he woke up too early, Charlie however was not like that. From the moment she opened her eyes on a morning her brain was in gear and by no means was she allowed to go back to sleep until the next night.

'_That's it!' _Her mind screamed _'I am getting a book.'_

The action however required effort, effort that her body was not willing to put in and she found herself crawling to the door as opposed to walking. She pulled herself up by the door handle, then she heard them. Voices. She moved silently out onto the landing, naming the voices as she did. Joe, so she hadn't missed him, Miles, Megan, Finlay… and… maybe… was that? Kent?

Thankful she had fished out one of Joe's old sweatshirts she tip toed along the landing and down the stairs, no body actually realised she was there until Megan saw her.

"Oh! Good morning Charlie," Megan smiled, cheerily irrespective of the time

"Morning Meg," Charlie grumbled through a yawn, wrapping both of her arms around her.

Joe turned to his grumpy, sleepy looking wife and smiled sheepishly.

"We didn't wake you did we?"

"No." She pushed some stray curls off of her face with her right hand while her left arm remained firmly wrapped around her, before leaning up to plant a brief kiss on his lips "I wanted a book…" She pointed to the study as though she needed to justify her actions.

That was when the scratching became audible, before the whimpering.

"No, Rolo… Not the damn door… Stupid hound…" Charlie mumbled

"Hound?"

"Got a dog," Charlie smiled "Only a puppy, he's adorable though" More whimpering "Rolo, hush!"

The puppy yelped in response to his name.

"Shh…" Charlie gingerly opened the door to the study a couple of inches before Joe wrapped his arms around her, kissed her cheek and said his goodbyes, promising to be home earlier again.

Charlie made her way into the study, after watching them leave, wandered over to the seven shelf book case and scanned each book in turn. Plenty they had both read before, especially at university, Keats, she took the book down from the shelf and thumbed through it before placing it back precisely in place. _Bleak House_ again a thumb through and put back. _The Woman in Black_ one of the original copies from before the movie. _Jayne Eyre, Wuthering Heights_, there's a thing. _Of Mice and Men,_ aw… Charlie had to admit she loved that one. _A Tale of Two Cities _as well as_ Bleak House, _Dickens they both liked Dickens. Ah, now there's an old welcome classic, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes. _A Study In Scarlet, The Adventures of…, The hound of the Baskervilles, The Sign of Four, The Memoirs of…, The Return of…, The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow _all in order.

After she had selected a book she made her way into the room and, pulling her knees up to her chest, snuggled down to read.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

_It was worth a wound – it was worth many wounds – to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation._*

That was always Charlie's favourite part of any Sherlock Holmes story. The door creaked open.

"Ah, mamma…" The little girl breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good morning baby," Charlie marked her page "You hungry?"

"No," She giggled "Silly mamma…" She made her way further into the room and clambered up to share the chair with Charlie "It only…" She looked at the clock and counted the numbers on her little fingers "Seven,"

"Six," Charlie tenderly counted tapping on Lillie's fingers as she did so "One, two, three, four, five, _six…_" She bent up another of Lillie's fingers "Seven, six first then seven," She kissed her head.

"Six." Lillie repeated nodding to herself "Book?"

"Yes, angel… My favourite book,"

"Read?" Lillie picked up the book, watching Charlie with pleading eyes

"Sure," She flicked to the contents page "I suppose so…"

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

"At the same moment Holmes stepped out and released the spaniel. With a joyous cry it dashed forward to the carriage and sprung upon the step. Then in a moment its eager greeting changed into a furious rage and snapped at the black skirt above it…" **

Lillie's stomach growled, the three year old just giggled. Charlie smiled as she marked the page and set the book down.

"Hungry now?"

Lillie continued to giggle "Yep!"

"Egg and toast sound good?" Charlie asked as she stood up

"Yeah…" She took Charlie's hand and skipped alongside her into the kitchen.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

**A/N: Well I hope you enjoyed that! I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan myself, so I wanted to get that in somewhere, anyway… You know the drill! R&R ^.^**

***Extract from **_**The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, The Three Garridebs**_

****Extract from **_**The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Shoscombe Oldplace**_


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: … *NothingToSay***

**/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/**

Charlie set the plate of egg and toast down in front of her young daughter, before grabbing her own breakfast and sitting in the chair next to Lillie.

"Right, what do you want to do today then munchkin?"

"Acky!" Lillie announced regarding the white of her boiled egg,

"D'you hear me?" Charlie nudged Lillie who was still staring at the egg white with a look of disgust coating her little face "Don't eat it then,"

"Okay," She smiled dipping her toast in the egg yolk "Hear you," She tapped her right ear

"What do you wanna do today?" Charlie asked swallowing a mouthful of her toast.

"Sophie?" Lillie watched Charlie pleadingly "Dec?"

"No, not today" She smiled "They need a break from you" She joked running her hand over Lillie's head.

Lillie giggled and thought some more, soon a little urgent scratching, followed by desperate sounding yelping filled the house.

"Rolo." Lillie stated matter-of-factly

"Yeah, better let him out before he destroys the door" Charlie shook her head "Daddy wouldn't like that…"

Charlie left the room and Lillie continued to eat her breakfast, ignoring the excited scattering of clumsy paws on the tiles outside, then inside as Charlie opened the door, stumbling her way back over to the table.

"Morning puppy," Lillie smiled.

Rolo made a beeline straight for Lillie, not bothering to move around the table just running straight under it, taking the direct route.

Anyone could see why Rolo reminded her of Joe.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

"So you got a dog?"

"_Charlie_ got a dog," Joe half smiled "He is cute though…" He laughed then remembering Charlie's words "She said that he reminds her of me,"

Miles chuckled while Finlay and Megan openly started laughing and Kent just sat in silence looking moody but that was becoming the norm recently.

"No really, honest opinion…"

Joe pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed them the picture he had taken of Rolo.

Finlay and Megan continued to laugh; Miles took one look at the picture and joined them. Joe half smiled and began to laugh a little himself. Kent just stayed silent and rolled his eyes.

"Okay, okay…"Joe put his phone back in his pocket "I'm guessing by that, that you can see what she means?"

"No offence sir…"

"Just a little" Megan smiled

"She chose the dog because he looked like you?" Miles cocked an eyebrow "Just shows that she thinks of you all the time" everyone could tell he was holding in a laugh whilst he was saying all of this.

They actually had nothing much to do today, their case from the day before had been referred over to the specialist paedophile unit, _after _the early morning's work on it, due to the sensitive nature of it all, not to mention those people were trained to cope with that kind of shit. He didn't envy them that job.

Kent had been very moody lately, since they had all met Charlie in fact. Joe just sighed, what you gonna do? He wasn't up for trying to find out what was wrong with him, not right now, thinking on it he just didn't really care that much at the moment he was still on a sort of high from Charlie and Lillie moving back to England, they needed a night out as a family.

He retreated into his office, they all watched him.

"I have a phone call to make…" He told them before shutting the door,

"Private one obviously…" Megan warned Miles and Finley who had suddenly become quiet as though to try and listen.

/…/…/…/

He dialled Charlie's mobile number in his own phone as he sat down in his chair behind his desk.

"_Hello?" Lillie had picked up the phone_

"Hi there princess," Joe smiled to himself, he could practically hear Lillie grinning down the phone

"_Daddy!" –Charlie was laughing in the background_

"Put mamma on the phone sweetheart," Joe heard the passing over of the phone

_-Mamma!- "Good morning, my amazingly handsome and intelligent husband whom I love to absolute pieces, to what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice during the working day?"_

Now he laughed, Charlie always knew what to say in every situation, "I wanted to talk to you, after being dragged out of bed away from you so early this morning, then finding out the case we did all of the early morning work on was being transferred to a different unit I feel guilty, I should be at home eating breakfast with you and Lillie right now, not stuck in my office with a cold cup of tea and a biscuit"

"_Well I'm trying to separate puppy from toddler while making sure she eats her breakfast and I get mine" She laughed "Then we're going for a walk later, probably going to the park, if you could spare an hour? Even half, it'd mean a lot to Lillie" A door closed on Charlie's end of the line_

"Well we've got nothing, I'll see what I can do, text me when you're setting off and I'll let you know"

"_You're the boss; you should be able to get away even for a little while,"_

"Yeah, I suppose I could disappear for a while, put Miles in charge… It shouldn't be a problem at all," He felt her smiling, saw her face, he closed his eyes and leant back slightly in his chair

"_Ah! ROLO! Slow down you silly dog" Charlie laughed, Lillie was giggling "You finished your breakfast little miss?" –Yep!- _

"Sounds hectic…"

"_You don't know the half of it, Joe I don't mean to cut this conversation short but I really better go…"_

"Yes, of course," He sat up and opened his eyes "Text me and let me know, remember"

"_I'll remember!"_

"Oh, and Charlie? I love you"

"_I love you too"_

He put the phone down on his desk and rubbed his temples, him plus the park hadn't even been a good idea when he was a child…

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

**A/N: Reviews anyone? ^.^**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: This chapter is a bit of a nod to the crappy weather we've been having in the UK recently… It's nice reading the reviews I'm getting, and looking at the statistics for this story seeing how many people are reading each chapter is what's keeping it going… ANYWHO! Enjoy…**

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Joe rushed out of the building jacket half on, partially drunk tea in his hand, Charlie had texted him nearly an hour ago and he had left his phone in his office the door to which had remained shut until the flashing message light had caught his attention. They'll still be there, she would've called him rather angrily if he had missed them, wouldn't she? She could be giving him the silent treatment for letting them down. He plunged the cardboard cup almost completely filled with tea in the close-by bin before jumping into his car thrusting the key in the start-up and frantically speeding out of the car park. He was pushing the speed limit in every possible way, not even one notch under; it annoyed him when he had to slow down even further to stick to the residential zone speed limit.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

Charlie stared at her phone, forty-five minutes since she had texted him, _forty-five_ minutes. She could've killed him, but she loved him a little too much for that. Lillie was playing with Rolo running around to no end, they couldn't let him off the lead yet because he was too young but Lillie just took hold of the lead and ran around with him while Charlie sat on a bench and rested.

The weather itself was rubbish, it had rained all morning and was currently really cold, Charlie was wearing her red rimmed black hunter wellies and favourite SML hood and padding jacket in red over a warm comfy jumper and some blue demin skinny jeans; Lillie was wearing her pink 'Minnie Mouse' matching raincoat, gloves and wellies over an outfit similar to Charlie's.

Rolo's ears pricked up at the sound of the gate to the park opening, Charlie didn't need to turn around to know that he was cringing just looking at all of the mud.

"Bench is clean!" she sort of sing-songed moving over on the bench knowing that he would not sit down on a damp patch.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry…" He apologised sitting down next to her "My phone was in my office,"

"Shut up," she smiled "It's fine, you're here aren't you? Or am I talking to an illusion?"

He leaned over and kissed her sweetly "That real enough?"

"Oh yes,"

"Daddy!" Lillie ran over pulling Rolo behind her.

"Hi there munchkin" Joe smiled pulling her onto his knee handing Charlie the lead, cringing inwardly when she began to swing her little legs with her mud covered wellies

Lillie tugged on his arm and pointed to the swings, "Push?" She jumped off his lap still holding onto his arm "Please?"

"Go, go, I don't mind" Charlie waved dismissively "I'll… Stay here with puppy"

"Yay!" She tugged his sleeve "Daddy?" She questioned when he didn't stand up "Come?" She tugged on his arm again, watching him intently.

Charlie watched him worriedly; she could see his mind working out a path to the swings that didn't contain mud, she punched him in the arm. He got the message and stood up.

"Come on then!"

Lillie grinned and grabbed his hand, in letting her run ahead he had doomed himself to going through whichever path to the swing was the quickest, also the muddiest.

She jumped up onto the swing with a smile.

He laughed shaking his head, "You good?"

She settled into the swing and turned around from looking at him and resumed swinging her legs trying to start herself going "Good." She chirped happily.

He pushed her gently on the swings; he'd missed all of this, playing with his children. Lillie was smiling all the time, she loved spending time with her daddy it was plain as day from how she acted around him, always happy to see him and spend time with him.

Charlie watched her husband and her daughter; she could see that Lillie was having the time of her life getting to play with her daddy and he was cringing trying his best to avoid any mud what-so-ever but it was already all over his shoes and the bottom of his trousers. She stood up, Rolo looked at her.

She nodded in their general direction. "'Mon then puppy…" She tugged on his lead and pulled him behind her as she walked over to them standing by the side of the swings leaning her head on the 'A-bars' Rolo just sat down beside her and watched, wagging his tail happily.

A happy family to anyone who watched them, dad, mum, daughter, dog- - puppy, in the park together playing.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

After a while on the swings Joe stopped pushing the swing and walked around to the front, picking her up and swinging her up into his arms.

"Ah! Daddy!" Lillie giggled

"Ha ha, I've got you now!"

She squealed and squirmed while continuing to giggle happily. Charlie smiled, Rolo jumped up and yelped.

"Daddy! Daddy! Stop it stop it!" She continued laughing and giggling

"Stop whaaat?" He joked kissing her head, before blowing a raspberry on her cheek

"Thaaaatt!"

Charlie smiled, grinned; she loved seeing him in the playful mood.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

**A/N: I don't think to be honest I'm ever going to end this story, not any time soon anyway, I love it a little too much, plussed with the fact that I can't see an end point even from my view as the writer yet! Review? ^.^**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Trying at light-hearted-ness again! The whole base idea of this chapter is based off of what happened at a party one of my friends went to the other week and when she told me the story I couldn't help but think to myself 'But that is actually a REALLY good idea…'**

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

Charlie had taken the opportunity to do it because she wanted to and she could. Joe would not be impressed but who cared? Right now she didn't, all she cared about was her daughter and herself somewhere among all of that. Charlie wasn't mad at Joe, not in the slightest, nope not at all, he wasn't going to be happy when he came home and saw what she had done but she had the perfect argument lined up in the form of; _'Have you never even considered it?'_

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When he had got back to the station walking into the incident room his coat was covered in mud and so were his shoes, Miles had given him some funny looks when he noticed the mud especially that on the sleeves of his coat.

"Lillie doesn't care about getting mucky, unlike me…" He had grimaced while peeling his coat off and hanging it up very quickly

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The nest-slash-fort that the mother-daughter team had constructed after they had got changed out of the clothes they wore to the park consisted of blankets and cushions, pillows and duvets, a few rather large teddy bears here and there. They had built it in the living room, on the floor and were currently snuggled into it with one of Lillie's colouring books and a pack of felt-tip pens.

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Work. Work, work, work, work, work, that was all his mind was filled with; everyone else had gone home a long time ago, he as the boss had lots of paperwork to do, well he said everyone, Kent had made a habit of staying late whenever he did and none of them really knew about Buchan, the researcher could be living in the basement crime archive for all they knew. They hadn't been in need of the service he provided recently, the majority of their cases had been quite bog-standard, straight line and sloppy, lots of forensic evidence for them to catch the killer and cement a conviction with, boring.

/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/…/

Charlie glanced at the clock.

"C'mon baby girl time for bed," She stood up and stretched

"But mamma," Lillie yawned sleepily "We need to tidy up…"

"No, no, mamma will tidy up, it's late and you need to get to sleep" Charlie picked Lillie up and the little girl tangled the fingers of her right hand in her hair and sucked on the thumb of her left hand.

"Daddy said he'd be home 'fore I went to bed,"

"No, sweetie he said he'd try, but he came to the park with us didn't he? He'll have lots of work to do, don't worry I'll make sure he has breakfast with us in the morning if I have to chain him to the bed." She kissed her head and started up the stairs

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Thank God he hadn't promised Lillie, she would be so disappointed; picturing her little face was not helping his situation at all. He checked his watch eight; forty… three, going home. Now.

"Kent." He addressed the young DC, who looked up like a little animal "Go home, I'm going home, you should go home." He handed him his coat Kent opened his mouth to say something "Go home. That's an order. Go home." He insisted as he walked out of the door.

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"Charlie…" He called, bending to the letter-slot "Charlie, I've forgotten my key!"

There was a laugh from behind the door, as it opened.

"Okay, okay…" Charlie was talking on the phone, she covered the mouthpiece and kissed him. "Good evening handsome"

"Evening sweetheart, who is it?"

"My brother, he's just heard we're back in the country and he wants to come over and see Lillie with Rachael and the kids, you know they've only ever seen and spoken to Lillie over Skype and the phone…" She uncovered the mouth piece "Yes, Luke I'm still here… Joe's back from work, yes just… Stop it. Luke, stop it or I'm putting the phone down on you. It is not that late… Yes, exactly nine o'clock… You might be my big brother man but I can make you surrender…" She listened to the person on the other end of the line while she pointed to the phone and mouthed to Joe _'You wanna…'_ He shook his head and gesturing to his clothes pointed up the stairs, she nodded understanding, she made her way back into the living room and sat in the cushion nest which she still hadn't cleared, she tucked her legs into the big red wool jumper which she was wearing, "Is he talking now?... Aw, that's so sweet…" She twisted a stray curl of hair around her finger "So it's just dada, at the moment? … So Brooke is Oo? And Michael is Ah? What's mummy then?... Muh-muh? Luke that's cute, why isn't it you scrooge?"

Joe entered the room, stopped and stared. What the hell was Charlie sitting on? He shrugged and sat beside her waiting patiently for her to finish on the phone.

"Luke, I've got to go… No he's not making me you first class jackass, I want to actually talk to my husband… Yes… Good bye Luke… Love you too big brother… Bye." She pressed the end call button on the phone and took in his confused expression "Have you never wanted to try it?"

"What? Construct a nest out of cushions?"

"Yes, it's comfy no?"

"Okay, okay it's comfy,"

She playfully batted him in the face with a cushion.

"Hey!"

He picked one up and returned the action, but on her arm not in the face.

"Got'cha!" She leapt at him but he moved out of the way "Ooft." She grumbled landing with a face full of cushions

"You know this is actually comfier than the bed…"

Charlie gave him an incredulous look, "This is no way comfier than a memory foam mattress."

"Then why are we still down here?"

"Good question."

She jumped up and raced out of the room towards the stairs, Joe sprinted after her wrapping his arms around her waist and pulled her to him.

"Ah!" She tried to turn and glare at him "No fair!"

"No? This fair?" He swept her into his arms and began to jog up the stairs "Shh… You'll wake Lillie" He added before Charlie could protest any further.

He nudged the door open with his elbow and sat on the bed laying Charlie down beside him. He lent back and laid flat on his back sighing deeply Charlie cuddled up to him. He turned on his side and wrapped his arms around her.

She breathed in "I love you…" She mumbled to his chest

"I love you too, in fact I don't know what I would ever to without you… You have my heart you always will."

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**A/N: Updates are going to become less frequent because I as the stupid person I am sometimes have taken on a challenge I set myself for another story which going by what I have planned so far is going to have lots and lots and lots of chapters, it's not for Whitechapel at the moment but depending how it turns out I may start work on a Whitechapel version I am still continuing with story though regardless as I absolutely love writing it anyway that's enough from me! Reviews anyone? ^.^**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **_Italics=Charlie's thoughts, _**Bold=Joe's thoughts, sort of their points of view but not in a way… What I'm trying to explain right now makes sense to me as I'm writing this but probably is confusing to you right now but there's a bit of chopping and changing through this chapter, I'm rambling on, but it will make sense… I hope… Oh and it does get a little 'suggestive' at the end…**

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_Today was certainly different, I could really get used to this… Having my little family back together. I still don't know how on earth Luke knew that we were back, who cares? I get to see my big brother again!_ Charlie rolled over to pull herself closer to Joe knowing that her OCD Detective Inspector of a husband always slept facing her while she was prone to wriggling around. A lot. But it seemed her arms just came into contact with air _Huh?_ She opened her eyes and looked around the room in a state of semi-alarm. _Where is he? Surely I would have noticed if he'd gotten out of bed… I'm not that heavy a sleeper; hell I wasn't even really asleep, was I? I didn't notice him get out of bed this morning; well I sort of did, unconsciously I did know that he was gone I suppose… Ow! Stupid floor…_

**Charlie's awake then. I need to find out when it is Luke's coming over, I really do not want to get caught here when he's here, I'll just work late I suppose… **Joe looked up from where he had seated himself among the cushion heap still in the living room.

"Hi," Charlie was stood in the doorway looking unsure as to whether she should enter the room or not, "What's on your mind?"

Joe just nodded, allowing her in not that she needed to be asked.

"Joe?"

"Your brother."

_Oh, I see, THAT's what's wrong… I'll be the first to admit that Luke is a complete and utter bully sometimes but I can see that he's changed, however much he may protest that he hasn't and he's still the same as he's always been he's not._

"He's changed Joe, I promise… He's changed lots since he became a dad… Again, really more since he married Rachael, I think he's actually ready to settle down this time! Not like with Allison, despite the two children I don't think he was ready for that kind of commitment then…"

**I have to be fair in this, she does put up with a lot of crap from Sam though it was the most hilarious thing on the planet when she kicked him almost halfway across the room… It's not like they'll be here all day, it'll only be a couple of hours…**

"Just give me fair warning?"

"Of course! I know that the two of you don't get along but he's going to have to deal with you and you with him because you are the two most important men in my life, especially since Ethan and dad both passed away, I need you both to tolerate each other for a short amount of time just for me…" She paused considering "And no 'I have to work late' either because I am well and truly prepared and able to ask your whole team to drag you out behind them when they leave if you even mention the thought of staying behind for some paper work or because you don't want to bring the emotions of your day at work home with you, I'm accepting no excuses mister! I haven't seen my brother or my nieces and nephews or my sister-in-law, in person" She added as a careful side note "For years…"

_I'm not going to admit by any means that Joe was the only person who made the effort to ever come over to the states and see me… He'll just go at Luke for it and I don't have the patience for that, not after I've been either at the centre of or splitting up their fights for years now, and Rachael has never actually seen how they are together, Joe and Luke were very polite at Luke and Rachael's wedding, not wanting to spoil the day for anybody but now the happy day and celebrations are over I can only really see trouble from the two of them meeting up again after all this time…_

"I know, I know… I just… You know what the two of us are like when we get going at each other…"

_Boy, do I…_

"I would be afraid of upsetting someone, because I know for a fact that if he asks me about work I'm going to punch him, especially if he goes on one of those rants about 'Oh, my sister tells me you've been working late a lot recently' with the suggestive look of raising the eyebrows and slight nodding of the head as though to raise suspicion…"

Joe was right and Charlie knew it. Luke had tried that before, trying to suggest that their marriage, their relationship even, wasn't as good as they made it out to be, and tried to subtly plant the idea in her mind that Joe had been having an affair instead of actually working late. She had subsequently thrown him out of the house when she had realised what was going on, just because Luke had been cheating on his first wife the mother of his two eldest children did not mean that Joe was going to do that to Charlie.

**If he starts with those mind games again, I will actually kill him. It's not funny, its doubt-seed planting and he knows it… Just because his first attempt at a family failed doesn't mean that mine ever will.**

_Well he certainly remembers that then. The unconscious tightening of his jaw, _she glanced down, _balling of his hands into fists, he remembers alright but he doesn't have to worry about a thing because if Luke does start that again I'll kill 'im never mind Joe…_

"C'mon" Charlie stood and tugged on his arm "Bed." She instructed

He pulled her back down into his lap.

"No. I'm quite comfortable here…"

"I do believe we've had this discussion already tonight, and it ended with us going to bed. I was happy in bed, I don't know about you…" She looked him over "Boxer man…"

He laughed sheepishly and she could see the little beginnings of blush spreading across his cheeks. She laughed herself but in a completely different more… Seductive manner…

"I'll make this easier for you," She adjusted her position so that she was straddling him, pushed him back and claimed his mouth with hers, "Now," She broke the kiss and allowed him to sit back up "Are we going to continue this down here" She gestured to the living room and its large bay windows "Or, more practically, upstairs on the comfy bed, in the bedroom" She bit her lip and gestured up and then to the door.

She got her answer. With her legs still wrapped around his waist, he stood up and carried her out of the room, up the stairs…

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**A/N: I had a really good idea for this chapter but I couldn't see how I could put it across so that prompted a complete and total re-write into a different idea that I had, anyway enough of my rambling reviews anyone? ^.^**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Oh, I am in SUCH a good mood! Got my results last week and I have to say I've done fabulously (If I do say so myself ;)) I now own all three seasons of Whitechapel on DVD (The first season is practically like gold dust where I live, It's taken six months to find it and when we did find it, it took five hours and every single shop that sold DVD's) and in addition to that Joe has the most lovely hair in season one because it's quite short and not like sort of 'greased' or 'gelled' into a parting and he seems all bewildered and confused and very very ill at crime scenes, but has anyone else noticed that Whitechapel is every two years and not every year? Ripper is 2008, The Krays are 2010 and season three was 2012… The thoughts system from the last chapter doesn't apply in this one, and that's all I've got to say, yes I know I'm rambling AGAIN… So enjoy! ^.^**

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_**He had never asked to be sought out by the bullies; in fact he had put in special effort to avoid them, which was probably what got him in their sights in the first place. Sam had just abandoned him at the drop of a hat well… As soon as the punches started flying, what a great big brother he was turning out to be in the time he actually needed him…_

_At twelve years old Joe was tall for his age, he'd always been tall but in the past few months life had thrown him a curve ball in the form of a few extra inches that he was still getting used to, leaving him a gangly mess of arms and legs that he couldn't work with, let alone co-ordinate in a fight, at the moment, he wasn't exactly bulky and able to defend himself either, he might've liked sport but only for the fun of it never for the actual athletic qualities…_

"_You're a sack'a shit Chandler you know that?!" _

_Joe just looked up too scared to say a word, blue eyes meeting dark green ones._

"_Yeah, what's so wrong with us? Always avoiding us, we've seen'ya all the time checking to see if we're around before going into places."_

"_Go on! Beat him to a pulp!" _

"_What's wrong with us huh?! Are we not good enough for you?!" _

_The fist this time connected with Joe's face and he felt blood rushing from his nose._

"_You know what? When it all comes down to it, I'm going to be somebody and you're just going to stay the weedy little nobody that you are…"_

"_Luke!" The boy punching him looked up and around, searching for the source of the voice "Stop it! Leave him alone!"_

"_Shut up Char, go home."_

"_No!" A little girl a couple of years younger than Joe barged over and pulled the boy off of Joe "Leave him alone!" She shouted standing between them "You're a bully Luke." She shoved him back "You go home!" She shoved him again "You go and leave him alone or I'll tell mum!" She pushed him onto his back on the floor "Go!"_

_Luke scrambled to his feet, embarrassed to have been knocked back by the younger girl._

_She turned to Joe and offered him her hands as the group of 'spectators' around them disbanded._

"_Ignore my big brother; he's just a big fat meanie!"_

_She smiled putting him at ease completely; she had shoulder-length dark curly hair and kind, comforting dark brown almost black eyes._

"_Wow, you're tall" She giggled "I'm Charlotte, but everyone calls me Charlie, apart from my mum but that's only when I'm in trouble"_

_Joe was just quiet; stunned that she had stood up for him._

"_What's your name?"_

_He sniffed then realised his nose was still bleeding, "Joe," _

"_Here," She pulled a fresh packet of tissues out of the pocket of her long red cardigan "Have these, I can get some more when I go home… I'm ten, how old are you?"_

"_Thank you," He pressed one of the tissues to his nose. "I'm twelve…"_

"_I'll walk home with you, i—if you'd like?"_

_He nodded; they started walking down the street._

"_My big brother is horrible, he picks on me too, he's thirteen and so much bigger so it's not fair…"_

"_I have a big brother too he's fourteen, he was walking with me but ran away as soon as your brother got hold of me…"_

"_He doesn't sound like a very good big brother…"_

"_He's not really; we've never been friends we just pretend to get along for our mum and dad… It's easier that way, so we don't have to keep getting into trouble for fighting all the time… Not punching and kicking, usually just calling each other names"_

"_Luke isn't that bad, when we're at home we usually get along but in front of his friends he always picks on me…" Charlie shook her head "We both have rubbish big brothers don't we? We could start like a little club for people who have bad big brothers" She giggled**_

That day was THE defining moment of Joe's whole life, the best part of meeting Charlie was the look on the 'big fat meanie''s face when they finally got together.

The bedroom door crept open, Lillie was stood there in her flowery yellow pyjamas one arm cradling the rabbit teddy and the other holding the door open.

"Daddy?" She whispered noticing Joe's clear movement as he sat up so he was able to see her.

"What's the matter sweetie?" He whispered back, she moved over to the side of the bed letting the door fall shut behind her and he turned to lie back down on his side again.

"I had a bad dream…" She hugged the rabbit up to her face, "Can I get in with you?" she asked the question in a voice that was muffled by the rabbits ears.

Joe's stomach did a flip, what other option did he have really? He couldn't say no and tell her to go back to bed; she was only three for god's sake…

"Sure," He shuffled over "C'mon…"

She clambered up into the bed and snuggled up to him, he wrapped his arms around her to keep her from falling out of the bed.

"Good night daddy…" She kissed his cheek.

He kissed her head in return, stroked her hair and as if by magic she was out for the count within a few minutes.

Never would he change his family for the world… Well maybe certain members he'd get rid of like a certain two brothers, one hers one his, for example…

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**A/N: I have one little question; does anybody recall if anything is ever mentioned about Joe's family situation, like if he actually does have brothers/sisters, if his parents are still alive? I've got that Commander Anderson is his God-father, I'm not really asking for this fic but for another I've got planned, from his conversation with Morgan about their dads and cricket in the last couple of episodes of the third series I'm presuming his dad is dead but… I don't really know? Anything anyone knows on the subject would be much appreciated thank you! **

**Reviews anyone? ^.^**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Wow. It has been a long time since I actually updated this story so I'm going to treat you all to two chapters instead of one , oh and this chapter does get a little… ahem, suggestive but it's nothing really, I don't think anyway ^.^**

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No way had Charlie been expecting the sight which she woke up to with Joe lying there perfectly still his arms wrapped securely around Lillie. The whole scene made her smile; Joe was the kind of father that was few words but many actions, very unlike his own who had been a man of very many words few of them kind on what he had described as the 'Politics' of life, how he would never ever 'sugar coat' reality for his children… That turned out great for him when they followed their father's footsteps straight into the police force, promised seats at the highest table of the highest ranking officers.

Charlie managed to snap a picture on her phone before the little girl stirred and reached up to rub her eyes.

"Good morning baby," Charlie whispered smiling as Lillie steadied herself as she moved over to Charlie's side of the bed, standing straight on Joe's stomach as he turned on his back.

"Oops, sorry daddy…" She apologised, smiling as she sat in the middle of the bed between her parents "Morning Mamma,"

Charlie hugged Lillie and kissed the little girls cheek.

"Good morning handsome," She smiled as Joe moved to sit up,

"Good morning sweetheart…"

"You know, I think that me and you are going to have a lazy day today baby," Charlie pushed herself up so that she was sitting with her back against the headboard "And daddy is going to make us breakfast instead of me…" Joe rolled his eyes, Lillie bobbed her little head in a nod of agreement, Charlie ran one of her feet down Joe's leg and he shuddered in response "Go on then, big man" She winked, grinning "Impress a girl…"

"I'm up, I'm up! But I will not bring breakfast to you in bed…" He watched her warningly

"I know! I'm getting up too!" She picked Lillie up as she got out of bed herself,

Joe took Lillie from Charlie "You," He kissed her head "My little munchkin, go and get dressed okay?" He set Lillie down on the floor.

"Okay!" Lillie grinned widely as she skipped out of the door.

"Now… What was I about to do?..." Charlie feigned a 'lost in thought' expression and sat down on the bed "Oh, yeah…"

She grabbed the top of his shorts and pulled him over to her and on top of her where he supported his whole body with one arm, she pulled his head down for his lips to meet hers, they kissed happily and lazily before Joe broke it off.

"She'll be dressed and back in here within the next five minutes, if not shouting for one of us to help her…"

"Yeah, five minutes…"

"Not long enough…"

"Good point," She pushed him up off of her and she proceeded to choose clothes to wear "Go on then," She smiled cheekily "Go get cooking,"

"Need, shower…" He mumbled moving past her into the en suite

"Yeah, me too…" Charlie simply lost interest in the clothes in the wardrobe and just picked up the duvet and dragged it out of the room with her and into Lillie's room where the three year old was sitting on her bed looking very tired and had made no effort to get dressed just stayed in her pyjamas "C'mon…" She picked Lillie up and wrapped the duvet around her too "Don't bother getting dressed baby if you don't wanna, we're having a lazy day I'm staying in my jammies"

"Okay…" She wrapped her arm around Charlie's neck and stuck her thumb in her mouth "Daddy cooking?"

"Not yet, He's getting a shower and dressed because after breakfast he has to go to work so he's got to be ready to go," Charlie kissed her daughters head

"Why does daddy work so much?"

"Because that way he keeps all the bad guys locked up keeping people safe"

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An hour later and with the miniature chef's hat his three year old daughter had lovingly plonked on his head still in place Joe sat down to breakfast with his wife and daughter.

"Well? Up to your standards ladies?"

Charlie took the opportunity to smile at the little chef's hat while Lillie watched him critically before grinning and continuing to eat the French toast he had made for them.

"The perfect little actress already,"

"Just like her mamma…"

Charlie playfully batted his arm with the oven glove she had grabbed feigning a 'shocked but hurt at the same time' look.

"Do you have to go to work daddy?" She frowned

"Yes baby I do, I can get away with turning up a few hours late though…" He glanced at the clock nervously "I … uh… suppose?"

Sensing his discomfort Charlie smiled softly at the little girl, "Hey now baby girl, we can't make daddy late for work or he won't have a job anymore!"

"Uh, oh…"

"Yeah, exactly uh oh"

"Mamma's right sweetheart," He knelt down next to Lillie, wrapped his arm her shoulders and pointed to the clock "You see the big hand?" She nodded "And the little one?" She nodded again "Well when the little one is on eight" he pointed to the number '8' on the clock "And the big one is on six" he moved his pointing finger to the '6' "Then, that's the time I have to go,"

She frowned at the clock while contemplating this, "But that's in…" she counted on her fingers "One, two, three…" she turned her frowning face to him "That soon though daddy,"

"I know sweetheart,"

Charlie smiled to herself as she cleared the plates from the table, and proceeded on to do the washing up, Lillie made a very good argument.

Small sharp barking broke her train of thought and the conversation between father and daughter.

"Rolo!" Lillie shouted, the puppy barked louder

"Lillie!" Charlie scolded "Don't shout him when he can't get to you it's not fair."

"Oh, uh oh?"

"Let's go get him," Joe stood up, Lillie hopped off the chair and grabbed his hand pulling him eagerly towards the door.

Joe loved family life, even that damn dog.

"Remember Luke, Rachael and the kids are coming over tonight!" Charlie called after him

Shit.

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**A/N: Did anyone else see Rupert Penry-Jones' tweet last month? The one about Whitechapel? No? I did! " rpenryj: And yet we are doing another Whitechapel. Start filming in jan"  
>This tweet + me = happyme = This story + your reviews *hint* *hint* ^.^<strong>


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: The DVD's have told me… Well not literally told me of course… Now wouldn't THAT be weird… That Joe's father is deceased. Just a random fact I thought you might like to know, any-who enjoy!**

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Charlie frowned. Joe had promised he would be home while her brother was still there in order to make some sort of effort but she could hear in his voice and see it in his eyes that he was very reluctant. Also remembering that her brother was coming over kind of scuppered her plans for her and Lillie to have a lazy day so after Joe had left and they had cleared up from breakfast she marched the little girl upstairs got her dressed then got dressed herself.

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_Yep. Tonight. Of course Char, that was the fair warning I asked for, telling me just a few hours before._ _Thanks_. Joe could not deny that he felt absolutely livid. It must have showed in his face too because they all just gave him one look and decided not to speak Miles was the only one brave enough it seemed and when he had asked what was wrong Joe had, now looking back on it, impolitely just grunted "In-laws" before striding into his office and, near enough, slamming the door.

He sat down at his desk and began with his usual routine, phone, watch, tiger balm out of the pockets placed precisely on the surface in front of him but it just didn't look right. He fidgeted about with them for ages, pushing them very slightly around the desk just getting them all at the right angle parallel to each other, **perfectly** parallel. And that was when his head began to hurt.

He picked up the tiger balm and swiped the finger closest to his thumb on his left hand through it, _one two three_, then rubbed each side of his head with that same finger, _one two three_, before massaging in it completely with the finger closest to the thumb and index finger of each hand, _one two three_. Not helping. Absent-mindedly he ran his hand over the scar that his push down the stairs by the Ripper had left him with, another thing that annoyed him, he couldn't see it much but he still knew that it was there and it really irritated him.

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It was Miles that spotted it first. His thoughts were confirmed by the text he received a few minutes later.

I think he's annoyed. Settle my nerves and keep an eye on him?  
>CC x<p>

Straight away he texted her back with an affirmative along with telling her he'd noticed the danger signs.

His next move was to make his way confidently into his office where he caught him still messing around with his phone and watch trying to get it perfect. Miles shut the door behind him.

"I thought that we agreed."

Joe looked up from his phone to simply acknowledge the presence of the other man in the room then looking straight back down concentrating on his phone.

"You were going to say something rather than keeping it bottled up and letting the OCD perfectionist in there go wild and win." He warned him sternly, snatching up the watch that Joe had just got perfect.

That got his attention. He turned his glaring gaze upward the anger didn't last long. He knew that Mile was right, he sighed and gestured for the older man to pull up a seat.

"No more. I clocked it straight away. Honestly I don't think your brain would let you take another episode like with the Kray case and let you keep your sanity."

Joe broke eye contact, knowing he was chopping at the right nerve Miles continued.

"Your wife and daughter need you. They both love you and need you at your best so that you can protect them. I know that you wouldn't be able to take it if something happened to either or both of them and if you couldn't do anything to help because you were having one of your OCD dicky fits you will never forgive yourself."

"Charlie texted you didn't she?"

"She's worried about you, and anyway what did you mean 'in laws'?"

"In laws…" Joe grumbled "Charlie's brother Luke. He's been nothing but a pain in the ass ever since I met him at school. You see this?" Joe turned his head to the side and pointed to the scar just below his ear "He did that, the day that I met Charlie…"

"So, he's a bit of an arsehole then?"

"In my opinion, yes. But he's Charlie's brother, he's here family and she has to put up with mine, I just can't stand him…"

"Well, you've met Judy's sister, I have to put up with that" He smiled and chuckled "We may not like the in-laws but like them or not as soon as we married our wives they became family,"

Joe looked up and smiled, Miles was talking sense, he was completely right…

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**A/N: Like it? Reviews much appreciated! ^.^**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: I know I promised two chapters last time but I've been really ill recently so I wasn't able to upload so I am sorry sorry sorry!**

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At three in the afternoon Charlie was rushing around in her bed socks, batman leggings and 'Pow!' jumper. Lillie was playing with Rolo in the garden, since it was all still muddy outside she was wearing her big yellow frog coat and wellies, she had to remember to keep an eye on her the last thing she needed was an emergency bath situation before Luke, Rachael and the kids got there. The last time she had seen Luke's oldest children Brooke and Michael, in person, Brooke had been three and Michael four months, now Brooke was eight and her little brother five.

"Mamma! Mamma!" Lillie came skipping into the kitchen, "Rolo's all muddy!"

"Okay, okay…" Emergency bath _canine_ situation it was then. "Up we get."

She picked the puppy up from the floor and lead the way upstairs to the bathroom and plonked him in the bath. He barked and jumped backwards when she turned the shower on.

"Oh, Lillie, sweetie can you go and get me the dog shampoo from the cupboard just outside?" Charlie pointed out of the bathroom

"Okay Mamma!" She jumped up and skipped out of the room returning two minutes later with the bottle of green dog shampoo "Here go Mamma,"

"Thank you baby,"

Half an hour later Rolo was all clean and smelling lovely.

"No more playing outside!" Charlie shouted down

"Aw, but mamma!"

"No! No more mess baby,"

"Oh, okie dokie mamma…"

"Good girl!"

Charlie stood up from where she had been drying the wet patches from the floor and her stomach did a flip. She gradually lowered herself back down to the floor groaning.

"Ohh…"

She turned to the toilet and vomited. She felt better instantly and stood up slowly, she filled the glass by the sink with water and rinsed her mouth before brushing her teeth. Wow, what was all of that about?

*_knock knock knock_*

"Mamma!" Lillie called

Rolo barked.

"Coming baby!"

Charlie jogged down the stairs, but Luke let himself in.

"Luke!" She ran at her brother and threw her arms around his neck.

"Hi there baby sister, long time no see" He hugged her back

Charlie let go of Luke and turned her attention to her niece and nephews.

"Auntie Charlie! Auntie Charlie!"

Lillie stood in the doorway to the living room with Rolo at her ankles who began to growl threateningly as Luke made his way towards her.

"Hi there sweetheart, I'm your uncle Luke, do you remember me?"

Lillie backed off shyly into the living room holding onto the door frame.

"Lillie baby don't be shy, you remember uncle Luke, you talked to him on skype remember?"

Lillie just moved around to Charlie and hugged her legs staring at her three cousins. Brooke smiled sweetly at her.

"Hi Lillie, do you remember me?"

Lillie shook her head, but as soon as her eyes fell on the baby in the pushchair Luke's wife Rachael was stood behind she spoke.

"Oscar?" She pointed to the baby

"Yeah baby, that's your little cousin Oscar, you remember him?"

"Yeah," She nodded "An' Auntie Rachael, an' Michael…"

Brooke looked a little upset, "Auntie Charlie why does Lillie not remember me?"

"Sweetie it's probably because you didn't talk to her as much as your brothers, you were always at a sleep over when we skyped"

"Rolo!" Lillie called as she sat down on the stairs, the puppy bounded over and barked happily "Good boy,"

"Cool!" Michael grinned and joined Lillie sitting next to her "You have a puppy?"

"Rolo." She corrected nodding her little head matter-of-factly

"Daddy, why can't_ we_ get a puppy?" Brooke demanded

Luke stumbled for a reason, he looked to Rachael for support but she just shrugged as thought to say 'She's your daughter not mine…'he maintained his lost expression for a few more seconds until his green eyes hit his little sister. Charlie made a money gesture with her hands, now he had his answer.

"Puppy's cost a lot of money sweetheart and you'd get tired of it when it grew up or when it was hard work."

"But Lillie has one!" She insisted

"Brooke, I said no… You can't just have what Lillie has."

"That's so not fair! She's littler than me!" Brooke huffed and pouted

"Brooke, sweetie, Lillie didn't ask me for Rolo it was my choice to buy him and I didn't just buy him for Lillie, I bought him for me as well," Charlie bent to eye level and tried to reason with the little girl but she was having none of it.

Brooke continued to argue with Luke about getting a puppy always coming up with another reason why; even the most ridiculous like 'I _need_ one.' Lillie and Michael went into the living room to play, he had wanted to go outside but Lillie said they couldn't 'because mamma just washed Rolo'

"Booke! Booke! Come pay!"

Brooke scowled. "Daddy. I want a puppy for Christmas." She demanded, before stomping into the living room.

"Oh, god…" Luke shook his head

"Well, she's just like you were…" Charlie smiled

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Joe noticed the car straight away… Black Renault Megane, car seats in the back, baby sun shades on the back windows. Luke and his family were here…

He sighed, time to face the brother-in-law…

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**A/N: So its getting up to Christmas and the Christmas scrooge has given me the week off from homework so I'll probably have a few more chapters including – I hope – a Christmas special written before January!**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Firstly thank you for the get well wishes, I had the norovirus (AKA the winter vomiting bug) which has been going around, it was a bit of a shock to the system because the last time I was ill like that I was seven, but I'm much better now, and secondly Happy New Year! Sorry it's a bit late but I wish you all the best for 2013!**

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"Daddy! Daddy!" Lillie ran at Joe and he heaved her up in his arms

"Hi there sweetie," He kissed her cheek

"Mwah!" She planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek

"Hey, darling…" Charlie grinned, "Do I get a kiss?"

"Of course you do." He kissed Charlie softly

"Well, hello there stranger, late home from work again are we?"

"Hi Luke." Joe managed to keep his tone civil but only just, he put Lillie down on the floor "Go play sweetie"

"Look, boys… You're both adults now, you need to put this silly feud aside…" Charlie ordered removing herself from Joe's side and going to stand with her sister-in-law.

"I'm all up for that but _he_ never has been." Joe sighed, Charlie shot him a warning glare, being the gentleman Joe offered his hand first to Luke.

Luke sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, Rachael and Charlie stood in the doorway to the living room looking reasonably smug about the scene that was unfolding in front of them. Joe and Luke shook hands neither, however, looked happy about it.

"So Joe why _do_ you always work late?"

So much for a truce. Joe and Luke spent the rest of the evening making snide little comments at each other that if you didn't know the situation would just give the impression of joking banter between two men.

"_Oh, of course you must be happy being just a DI…"_

"_I suppose working in a call centre must be exciting, all of those people swearing at you down the phone…"_

"_Did they ever catch the 'ripper'?"_

"_So, Luke, all the running around picking the kids up from Allison's driving them to yours and taking them home it must be tiring…"_

"Well," Luke said sitting on the sofa next to Rachael "I'm glad I can say that we share all of the parenting of the kids, even though Michael and Brooke aren't yours sweet heart."

"Stop it." Rachael growled elbowing Luke, "Play nice."

"No, no, I didn't mean anything by it I just meant it must be relaxing not having to have done any of the potty training or have the sleepless nights with babies."

"You're right, it is good to provide a nice stable home for a child rather than them being pulled from pillar to post between parents," Joe smiled in a demeaning kind of way.

Though Joe was good at just letting the comments slide Luke had always been confrontational.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" He exploded sitting bolt upright, "You can hardly say you've provided a stable home environment for your children! Lillie was born in America. You lived here, you were only there for the conception and birth of your daughter, she was raised fully by her mother. I don't even see where you get off calling yourself a father to that little girl! And Ethan, he was born and partially raised here then moved to America with his _mother _while _you _stayed here and were absent for the remainder of his life. At least I can say I know every little thing about my children, I have always been there for them and always will be! You didn't even know your son!"

Joe felt sick to his stomach, Luke's words stung; the thing that hurt the most was that as much as he hated his brother in law he was right, Joe hadn't known Ethan, he knew him for a sum total of a year out of his life which was spread over the three nearly four years the little boy had lived.

The thing that Luke never realised, or intended, was that his speech, his words would hurt his little sister too. Charlie gazed over at him and that was when he saw it; she looked wounded almost as though he had actually stuck one knife straight into her stomach and another in her back. Luke instantly felt like a child again, that disapproving, injured, 'I thought my big brother was better than that' look she had given him the day she first met Joe and the first (but certainly not the last) time she had stood between them.

"I think it's time you left…" Charlie whispered almost inaudibly, the room had gone so silent you could've heard a pin drop, and its echo.

"Charlie…" Luke stood up and approached his sister "I'm sorry… I… I didn't…"

"I don't care." She said sternly

Rachael left the room to go and get the Brooke and Michael who were playing with Lillie in her bedroom before going to collect Oscar who was snoozing peacefully in the study.

"Luke. You have no right to come into my home and criticise my family. I wanted the job in America so badly I can't tell you how much; Joe loved me enough to let me go and grab the chance. He supported me to no end. And I'll have you know he is the best dad a kid could ever have, he travelled literally thousands of miles to see his children, to be there when his daughter was born. He saw their first steps and heard their first words. When Ethan died I came back here and had him buried here because I knew that the America move was not permanent. When Lillie and I moved back here he waited in the airport for six hours just so that he could be there for us, he had no sleep and was supposed to be at work within the next two hours but he stayed there and waited. You have no right to criticise my husband, any man can be a father like you but it takes a real man to be a dad."

Luke was frozen with shock, he was speechless.

Joe rose from his seat in the chair and took place at Charlie's side.

"You've upset my wife, I want you to leave."

"Charlie?"

"Go."

Joe needed no confirmation from Charlie for his next move as she went to see her brother and his family out he picked up his phone and typed in the message.

**You and Judy fancy a drink? Bring the kids, no problem.**

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**A/N: That took me a while! Well, anyway there's a birthday coming up in the next few chapters it's an adult's birthday and I was debating whether to set it in a house or a pub any chance you could help me out? Reviews much appreciated, make me smile ^.^**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: I don't know the names of the Miles boys, I'm pretty sure the oldest is called Terry and I think that one of the others is called Jamie (From first and second seasons) so I'm going to use those two names and another… Enough of my rambling enjoy!**

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"He did what?!" Judy looked genuinely disgusted when Charlie and Joe finished the story

"I swear I'd've laid 'im out if I'd been you. And I've seen you box, I know you're fully capable of it too."

Miles had responded quickly to Joe's text offer of a drink and he and Judy had come over with the kids almost straight away. The kids were all in the room together happily watching a film while the adults were talking in the kitchen

"Never mind Joe doing it, I was near enough to killing him but I love my niece and nephews a little too much to do that to them but he's just so insensitive," Charlie sipped her glass of wine "He only cares about himself, trying to get one up on everyone else…"

"I'm so glad I only have sisters" Judy smiled "Brothers are starting to sound like a real pain in the arse."

"Cheers to that!" Charlie raised her glass

"Cheers!" The other three adults echoed as they clinked their glasses.

"Mamma?" Lillie peered around the kitchen door Adam, the youngest of the Miles boys, right by her side

"What's up sweetie pie?"

"Movie's over…"

The adults shared a look, "How 'bout we come and watch another movie with you guys?"

"Yeah!" Lillie bounced up and down ever so slightly on her little feet

"What do you guys wanna watch then?" Judy asked as they all stood up

"'Gascar three!" Lillie grinned as she continued bobbing up and down on her feet

"Um… Do we have that one?"

"Yeah! Ne'fix!"

"I suppose we can have a look"

Charlie and Judy smiled and followed kids into the room while Joe hung back to put the chairs back in place and Miles stayed with him.

"She's a cutie your little girl," Miles smirked "You're going to have a real job on your hands when she starts high school…"

"You're going to have the same thing with Sophie," Joe reminded him

"Yes, I am but you will have gone through it before me so I can get advice off of you plus she's got three big brothers." He nodded matter-of-factly

"I thought we established tonight that brothers can get nasty?" Joe asked cocking an eyebrow

"Yeah, but with each other and with men they don't like their sister being with, which is fine with me because I can probably guarantee that if my boys don't like the guy neither will I."

"You don't know that, Charlie's dad liked me right from the off,"

"Really?"

"Yeah, well, from when he first met me of course, initially he didn't like the idea of his little girl having a boyfriend but when he met me he didn't mind so much anymore…"

"_Joe; please calm down and stop fidgeting" Charlie insisted "You will be fine."_

"_But I only have one chance to make a good first impression on your dad."_

"_I know you do, but my dad isn't that judgemental,"_

"_How can you be sure? From what I've noticed it seems that dads are highly protective over their teenage daughters,"_

"_Joe?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Shut up."_

_The door to the left of the sofa opened and an older man strode in and ginned upon seeing Charlie._

"_Hey there baby doll!" He had a strong Southern American accent_

"_Hi daddy," Charlie gave him a tight hug before turning and gesturing toward Joe who was now stood up, "Daddy, this is Joe…"_

"_It's nice to finally meet the boy that has been putting such a smile on my little girls face these past few months," He extended his hand _

"_It's nice to meet you too sir,"_

_They shook hands and Charlie smiled encouragingly at Joe._

"_Oh, please, don't call me sir, call me Jackson"_

"_Okay,"_

"_So Joe…" Jackson began while lowering himself into the armchair across from the sofa as both Joe and Charlie sat back down "What does your father think of this relationship then?"_

"_Oh, um… My father passed away three years ago…" Joe mumbled _

"_Ah… Charlie honey, do you mind going and getting us some drinks?" Jackson raised his eyebrows suggesting that he wished to talk to Joe alone._

"_Yeah, sure thing daddy," She chirped, squeezing Joe's had reassuringly as she stood._

_Once she was out of the door Jackson's full attention was on Joe._

"_So let's get down to business boy," his gaze was almost a glare "Where do you see your relationship with my little girl going? Because, quite frankly I don't want to have to deal with little scumbags who just want her for her body and are going to break her heart once they've got exactly what they want out of her."_

"_I love her. I want to be with her for as long as possible, I would never use a lady like that; my father brought me up better… He taught me to respect women and that's exactly what I do."_

"_I like you Joe, but if you wrong my little girl I'll be on you like a lion on its prey…"_

"_I understand."_

Joe smiled and almost laughed at the memory. Jackson Graham loved his little girl and the hardened Southern Gent had actually shed a tear at their wedding…

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**A/N: I know I've never mentioned it before but Charlie is actually half American anyway… Reviews? Please? ^.^**


	26. Snow Special Party One

**A/N: This chapter is my little sort of hat tip to the snow we have here! Enjoy!**

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It was safe to say in the morning none of the adults had actually taken the time to look outside.

At the end of the night the four adults had polished off three bottles of wine and although that wasn't actually a lot each it still meant that none of them could drive; so Ray, Judy and the kids stayed over, Sophie slept in a travel cot in Lillie's bedroom (she wasn't so young any more so the chances of her waking up in the middle of the night were slim to none)

"Daddy!" Lillie called excitedly as she ran into the kitchen

"Dada! Dada!" Sophie tried to mimic her new best friend, toddling into the kitchen right behind her.

Ray jumped up and caught the little girl before she tripped over her own feet, "And what is it that you two are so excited about?"

"'noe! 'Noe!" Sophie giggled pointing to the door that lead outside

"'nowing!" Lillie grinned as Joe picked her up and sat her on his lap.

Charlie and Judy who had, up till now, been concentrating on making breakfast opened the curtains of the kitchen windows.

"Oh my god!" Judy looked astonished

Charlie just squeaked happily and bobbed up and down on her toes. No wondering where Lillie gets her excitability from…

"Look!" Lillie demanded of Joe giddily pointing to the window.

Joe lifted her onto his side and walked over feeling a little sceptical, kids can get excited over the smallest amount of snow; Ray had much the same idea and joined Judy at the window.

"Would you look at that!"

The ground was covered with a thick, heavy layer of snow.

"It must have been snowing all night…" Joe whispered, though he didn't know why he was whispering, Lillie patted his arm and her turned his head to face her.

"S'edging?"

"Sledging?" He repeated

"Yeah!" She giggled "S'edging"

"Um…" He thought it over, "I think there might be a couple of sledges in the shed but they haven't been used in years…"

"C'ean 'em?" The little girl requested, by now Joe was fully aware that there was absolutely no getting out of this.

This time he turned to the other adults, "What do you guys think?"

Charlie gave him a look as though to say 'you really think my answer is going to be no?', Judy smirked and looked to Ray.

"I think it's a great idea and that we should include everyone else too." He smiled at Lillie "Good thinking buttercup," he ruffled her hair

She giggled at the nickname the team had given her due to her always wearing yellow when they saw her, well at least nine times out of ten

Joe put Lillie down on the counter, grabbed his coat and wellies from the hallway and snatched the keys from the cupboard.

"Might as well get them now."

Ray handed Sophie to Judy, slipped on his shoes and threw on his coat, adding a "We all know what he's like with mess…" before slipping out the door behind Joe.

"He thinks that shed is going to be any form of mess he is sadly mistaken…" Charlie shook her head and helped Lillie down from the counter before fully opening the curtains.

Judy laughed, setting Sophie down on the floor,# the two girls ran excitedly back into the room with Lillie excitedly chanting 'S'edging!'

"I'll drop everyone a text; let them know what the plan is…" Judy picked her phone up from the table

"Good idea… Make sure they have some sledges too though…" Charlie suggested stifling a giggle

"Why?" Judy made her way back over to the window

"I don't think that particular one is stable!"

Judy also had a suppress a laugh when she saw the bewildered look on the faces of both men as, while in one hand they each held a sledge in the other they each had half of another.

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**A/N: I know this chapter is shorter than usual but I wanted to end on a bit of a laugh and since I didn't get to do my Christmas special I thought I'd give you a snow one instead! Reviews make me happy… So does snow, but reviews? Many pleases and thank you's! ^.^**


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